Raj WICKREMASEKARAN MBBS, FACC. PASSES AWAY
Update Saturday 27th April- Photo sent by Srianee
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With great sadness, I report that our colleague R.
Wickremaskeran has passed away.
He is the 55th to pass on.
He had many serious medical problems and was on continuous
Oxygen, but his spirit and courage never wavered. I last “saw” him on a batch
Zoom organised by Rajan “Patas” Ratnesar in 2020, during COVID shut down time.
He was recognised as a very clever person at Royal and at the Medical faculty. He entered the Faculty from Royal College. There were 9 from the Royal 1954 group in our Batch—S P Lamabadusuriya, D B M Collure, P Sivananda, K L M T de Silva, S R de Silva, V P H Rajapakse, Chanaka Wijesekera, R Wickramasekeran, Channa Ratnatunga (Peradeniya), but the total from all years was a noteworthy 38.
I shall post more details as I get them. Please join me in sending our condolences to his family.
Speedy 24. 04.2024
I was delighted to receive an email from Srianee Dias with two photos.
The first shows him with his parents, brother, and sister-in-law, and the other with his grandson. The pretty sister-in-law is Sarojini (Saro, as we called her), Rajan Ratnesar's sister.
"Mahen, thank you for sharing the sad news of Wicks' death on the blog. He and I were part of the group of batch mates that ended up in NYC. If I remember correctly, he started his internal medicine residency at Brooklyn Hospital, where I later joined the pathology training program. He married a friend from Ladies' College, a few years junior to me, and shortly thereafter moved to Washington, DC, later ending up in southern California. We kept in touch sporadically. Lekha, his wife is a close friend of two of my friends who live in CT, and because of them I kept getting news of Wicks' failing health.
I did call him a few times over the years and I was always impressed by his cheerful spirit. It was never a case of "Woe is me..." He was more concerned about other people. When my older daughter's home was washed away by Hurricane Ian in September 2022, Wicks called me to find out how they were doing! I felt uplifted after talking to him. He coped with his limitations and never complained. He was very fortunate to have Lekha by his side. The COVID lockdown was hard on both of them, because they were homebound on account of his immunocompromised state. As one of his friends said "He was a kind, loving man."
May he find Eternal Peace".- Srianee "Bunter" Dias
If anyone has a recent phtograph of Wickremasekeran, could you please email it to me or add to the WhatsApp group. Please send me any comments which I shall add to the main post.
ReplyDeleteIt is with great sadness I received the news of the passing of another from our batch at med school. I remember Wickramasekeran well during the 5 years in the Faculty. He was a slim guy who immersed himself fully in the academic work and wasn’t too concerned about the social aspects of life in the faculty. My lasting memory is of seeing him quietly seated in the Mens’ Common Room and sometimes in discussion about academic work. He was a regular in the Medical School Library. I last saw Wickramasekeran in the famous green lobby of the Admin building awaiting the results of the final examination. I know he emigrated to the USA with the mass exodus in the 1960’s. I sincerely hope he had a happy life and a rewarding career in medicine.
ReplyDeleteMay he find eternal Peace.
Mahen, thank you for sharing the sad news of Wicks' death on the blog. He and I were part of the group of batch mates that ended up in NYC. If I remember correctly, he started his internal medicine residency at Brooklyn Hospital, where I joined the pathology training program later. He married a friend from Ladies' College, who was a few years junior to me and shortly thereafter moved to Washington, DC, later ending up in southern California. We kept in touch sporadically. Lekha, his wife is a close friend of two of my friends who live in CT, and because of them I kept getting news of Wicks' failing health. I did call him a few times over the years and I was always impressed by his cheerful spirit. It was never a case of "Woe is me..." He was more concerned about other people. When my older daughter's home was washed away by hurricane Ian in September 2022, Wicks called me to find out how they were doing! I felt uplifted after talking to him. He coped with his limitations and never complained. He was very fortunate to have Lekha by his side. The COVID lockdown was hard on both of them, because they were homebound on account of his immunocompromised state. As one of his friends said "He was a kind, loving man."
ReplyDeleteMay he find Eternal Peace.
BTW, I am working on getting a photo for the blog.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Srianee. I have added your lovely account and he photos to the body of the blog post.
ReplyDeleteI would like to list the names of old Royalists at Medical College from the batches adjacent to ours. Please feel free to add other missing names.(5?)
ReplyDelete1953 Group.- Tilak Dayaratne, SidatJayanetti, Balasubramaniam (Thatte Bala),MHS Cassim, R S Drahaman, W Rajasuriyar Nihal ( Pol Adda)Samaraweera (Peradeniya).
1952 Group-H N Wickramasinghe, Jimmy Wickramasinghe, M P C Jaimon, M D N K Goonetilleke, Harsha Samarajeeva, C Maheswaran, Kiththa Wimalaratne, Russell Paul, J G Wijetunga, M G Perera (Peradeniya) H I Perera (Peradeniya)
1954 Group at RC who were in the 1963 batch -S P de Silva, Arudpragasam, Sandy Parameshwaran, S Thiagarajah, H S P Peiris,Anura Rajapakse, Gaminda Warusawitharna, Joe Wijayanayagam, S A (Srikantha) Wijesekera, C K Pathirana (Peradeniya)
1951 Group-Bandula Jayasekera, L P U (Lucky) Weerasooriya. Batuwitage, J C Fernando, Balakumaran
1955 Group. Mahendra Gonsalkorale, Ravi Nadaraja