Remembrance Day (4)

Remembrance Day (4) - Fond memories of Priya Gunaratna.

Priya (Gunaratna) de Silva – passed away on 8.10.2014

Priya entered the Faculty of Medicine in Colombo in September 1962.  She was educated at Visakha Vidyalaya, Bambalapitiya. There are many previous blog posts in her memory but this is a special collection of tributes from three colleagues who were very close to her.

Chirasri Jayaweera Bandara

Priya was a very good friend of mine and I miss her very much.  She was friendly, helpful and saw the brighter side of everything.

I used to travel to Medical College in a private car and pick up late Priya and the late Kamini from Dickmans Road and Padmini from Isipathana Mawatha. During College days we were in and out of our houses.

When I went to Kandy as Consultant Eye Surgeon, she and her family lived there. We used to visit each other and have meals together. When their younger daughter Anjali ( 6 - 7 yrs old ) had an Eye injury I treated her.

One day in Kandy when I was driving home in the hot sun, suddenly the whole windscreen cracked up like a jigsaw. I just couldn't see to drive. With difficulty, I moved the car to the side and stopped. From nowhere Priya came to my rescue. She helped me to contact Walkers, got the car towed and dropped me at home.

Later when we both came to Colombo we used to visit each other and have meals together.

Priya, Chula her husband, and daughters used to consult me about their eyes at my residence.

My husband Ranjit knew Chula as they worked together in the past.

We attended their daughters’ weddings. The diet was Vegetarian. Sharini the elder one married our batch mate Swarna Vithana's nephew. They live in the USA. Anjali, the younger one married DB Nihalsinghe's son and they live in Australia.

I am in touch with Chula as he and his domestic consult me about their eyes. My son who is a Doctor helped Chula and his domestic's son at Kalubowila hospital.

Pramilla Senanayake

Priya was a cheerful, fun-loving person. I knew Priya at the faculty. However, our friendship was strengthened when she joined the family planning association of Sri Lanka. She was the medical officer at our Bullers Lane clinic. She not only saw the clients who visited the FPA  for sexual and reproductive health services but she took care of the health needs of all the staff and even their families. After clinic patients were seen, Priya would be around attending to the needs of staff members and their families.

She was a tremendous asset to the FPA. Her colleagues loved her. 

On one occasion she was on holiday with her daughter in New York. I too was in New York at the same time. We met up in NY and spent a wonderful afternoon walking around Manhattan window shopping and  reminiscing .

She was a wonderful person and is Sadly missed. 

Swyrie Balendra

Thank you, Speedy and others who organized the Remembrance Day for our dear departed friends, with whom we spent five of our most remembered years. It’s a fitting tribute to our batchmates who were very much a part of our lives at that time. As it normally happens in life we go our own way after a period but still continue to have a special place in our hearts for friends we made along the way.

When it comes to those who have passed on, I have to specially mention Priya who was one of my dearest friends. We continued our friendship till the last days of her life.

I  got to know Priya very early in our Block days when we used to play carrom in the Common room. From that time on we became friends and made it a point to get together whenever time permitted between lectures and Ward Classes. Our names were close enough alphabetically for us to be quite often in the same Ward Class or Study group. I remember the long walks down the corridors of GHC. Invariably we were pulled up for being late to class as we found something interesting enough along the way to stop and have a giggle about. On these jaunts down the corridors, Rosh would join us sometimes and of course, then we were even more late.

I lived on Police Park Avenue and Priya was on De Fonseka Road and that was close enough for us to meet frequently even outside Medical School hours.

Soon after we qualified we were both Bridesmaids for our mutual friend Sriani. Later on

Sriani and Priya both worked at the FPA and as bosses they ran a very efficient outfit even bringing the birth rate in Sri Lanka down significantly!

Priya was kindness personified and by nature a bubbly personality. This was partly why she had so many friends both in Medical School and outside. She played a big part in the activities of her old school Visakha. She was a very useful member of the Organising Committee for our Batch Reunions right from the start. She was full of ideas and was very helpful with the arrangements especially when it came to Entertainment. We will miss her if and when we do have another Reunion.

Needless to say, her illness left her husband Chula and daughters Sharini and Anjali devastated. Priya though handled it with much courage and fortitude. Right from the beginning she took charge of the situation and was directing operations. She bravely battled through for three years or more and even though she hated the chemotherapy that was prescribed to her she continued to have yet another session just so that she would be well enough to visit one of her daughters in New York or Australia. All plans had been made for her and Chula to visit Australia for the birthday of a grandchild but she never made it as she sadly succumbed to her illness.

I miss the long phone calls talking and laughing so much that we drove our husbands mad! It was good to have her around.