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| Friday, 28 November 2003 |
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Sri Lanka's latest centurion Eva Atapattu
Eva Atapattu celebrates her hundredth birthday today. Born in Matara, Eva as the matriarch of the Atapattu family had been over the years beaming her rays and gently guiding the lives of her brood like the towering lighthouse of Dondra built in her hometown around the same time she was born. Married to Francis Herbert Atapattu at the age of twenty six, she produced seven children - three boys and four girls. The family tree kept sprouting producing eighteen grandchildren and eighteen great-grandchildren. Almost all members of her extended family numbering 43 with those abroad making a special trip, are there with her today at daughter Kokila's house to help the birthday girl blow out the hundred candles and wish her many more 3-digit birthdays to come! Special guests of the occasion are her 101 year old elder sister Sylvia Bandaranayake and her 90 year old younger sister - Alice Alawattegama. She had lost only her third sister - Mary Weerasinghe. Eva, the second child of Mudliyar James Wickremaratne and Lamatheni Isabella Wickremaratne of Thelijjawilla Walawwa, Matara was admitted to the Matara Convent as a boarder at the age of 6 years! The akka had to be admitted at 7 and therefore the family decided to admit both sisters to school together so they had one another for company. Amongst other things of her school career, Eva still speaks of her classmate and friend Ruth, who later married George Keyt. This was the era when the syllabus of schools encompassed the entire gamut needed to make young girls perfect housewives and excellent mothers! As a housewife therefore, she was at her sewing machine sewing all her household linen as well as clothes of her children with smocking, embroidery etc. Of her cookery skills her daughters' eyes light up when they speak of her unbeatable prawn-baduma, beef smore and pork curry! The family today proudly shows the hundreds of intricate pieces of crochet she has done for her family and friends which span from tablecloths that cover a table for 12 to coverlets, cushion-covers the most recent being a teapoy cover crocheted for her youngest granddaughter Manisha just three months ago! For Eva, it had been love at first sight when Francis Herbert Atapattu, then a young, handsome Police Officer in Matara dropped in by chance at Thelijjawila Walawwa in the company of Eva's brother David Wickremaratne. And in walked David's sister - a five feet nine inches tall, stately, charming beauty with tea for the visitors! The visit ended up not with one but two marriages, as Eva's brother David later married Francis Atapattu's sister Stella! The couple made their home in many parts of the country - in Horana, Wattegama and later in the tea country. From 1943, for 7 years, they were in Bandarawela where the dashing young couple were a hit. Many still speak of how the couple sang together the old favourite "Kekatiya Mal" at the Bandarawela Planters' Club. They had their longest spell however in Kandy until 1984 during which time the husband took over the post as Head of the Tea Control Department. The father's vocation in the tea planting sector evidently ran in the family, as all three sons took up vocations associated with tea - Saliya as Tea Commissioner in Australia, Tissa as a senior executive in the tea company - Shaw Wallace and Hedges and the youngest son Jivaka as Chairman of the State Plantations Corporation in Nuwara Eliya. The eldest daughter Devika as well as the youngest daughter Sujiva ended up marrying planters and son-in-law Walter Gunawardene as Chief Engineer of the Commercial Company was in charge of maintenance of machines used in tea factories. Eva herself ran her home as a typical planter's household and remained unruffled despite having to feed a cricket and 2 rugger playing toughie sons and look to the needs of 4 sprightly daughters besides unfailingly having several alsation dogs as part of her extended family. Entertaining friends and relatives was her forte and of course she often had to put up with friends of both the sons and the daughters who freely dropped in from Kandy High School and Trinity College, not necessarily with invitations. And with fiances entering the scene the daughters Mitabi, Kokila and Sujiva still relate as to how craftily the mother used tact when suitors overstayed their permitted time out in the garden after dusk. The excuse she used to get them indoors was that the soup was getting cold! The couple celebrated their 36th wedding anniversary and even after the death of her husband in 1966 Eva's fervent wish had been to keep her family - children, in-laws and the rest of the brood united. A request she unfailingly makes even now of her daughter Kokila and son-in-law Badre Wimalasekere with whom she had been staying for the last 10 years, is to invite everybody whenever there is a family occasion. Age apparently had never got in her way as we heard her singing "Dhanno Budunge" like a nightingale and without missing a word at her 99th birthday! She also made a trip to the USA by herself for her grandson's graduation at the age of 82 and made the second trip at the age of 84! What accounts for her remarkable physical agility and the longevity of her and her 2 sisters? Is it family genes? Is it food? Is it the region where they were born and bred? Or is it the stress-free lifestyle that they led? While we leave medical experts to unravel these health secrets here's wishing Sri Lanka's latest centurion three cheers and a Very Happy Hundredth Birthday!! - G.W |
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