Flying away

I have known Mary and her three daughters for more than two decades. My wife and I first met them at a time their world had completely collapsed and the family left stranded without a shred of light.

by Capt Elmo JayawardenaThat's what they sang for parting wishes at Mary Felicia's daughter's wedding. The choir of a few carried the lyrics with resonant voices and the gathered handful whispered the chorus, all about little birds soaring to the sky, flying away, flying away.

The event took place in a bruised-walled and patched-roofed poor church where a scattering of a congregation of smaller than small people had come to give their good wishes. It was to fellow tsunami survivors as they made their sacred promises to bind the ties of blessed nuptials.

I too was present among this mainly fisher-folk and was awed by the simplicity of the ceremony and the inspiring meaningfulness of it all. I felt I owed it to Mary to write her story, just so that people would know what rock bottom courage of a mother is all about.

Her deeds are unsung and time would surely lessen their value, blowing them away like tumbleweeds in the wind, unheard and certainly unheralded. But who knows? Perhaps they might be written among the stars by the unseen hand of a sympathetic angel for eternal evidence.

I have known Mary and her three daughters for more than two decades. My wife and I first met them at a time...