Many daughters have done virtuously but you excel them all. Prov: 31:29
This sums up Irma my dearest friend who is now with the Lord. You can make a new friend everyday but to have a friendship that has lasted over 80 years is hard to beat. Irma has been a great friend from the age of 10 when we were boarders at Bishop’s College.
We had our secret club. We had our secret language and no one could understand our secret communications. From 4pm to 5pm was our play time.
There was a huge Cholepalanga tree trunk which spanned the garden. This was our ship. One of us was Captain and the other 1st Mate. Many wanted to join us in our play as passengers on the ship. The ship sailed to distant ports.
On Saturday evenings we went in pairs to Marikars and Irma and I invariably were partners. On Sundays we went to church at St Michael and All Angels Polwatte. The animals went in two by two into Noah’s Ark and Irma and I were partners.
One day I accidently swallowed a whole sweet. I was so scared. I thought I would die. What did Irma do. She took another sweet and swallowed it herself just to reassure me. That was the friend she was.
All this happened in the boarding of Bishop’s College. It all came to an abrupt end when the Japenese dropped the bomb on Colombo on the 6 th of April 1942. Our paths diverged but we continued our friendship. We at least sent a Christmas card to each other and maintained the relationship.
She was a very loyal past pupil of Bishop’s College, giving donations to the school and the PPA. She was a Vice Patron of the PPA for several years.
Later in life we became great friends again. Irma started to meet with a few girls who were Bishopians. The only requirement was that you had to have attended Bishop”s College.
We were of various age groups. We met regularly at each others homes. We sang, played games, solved puzzles and riddles and shared jokes. We had a good lunch and then said good bye.
Irma was the chief organizer of these get togethers. At every meeting she never forgot the workers in the home of the host and also some charity. She continued this even after giving up her own home and going to live with her daughter. Her failing ill health brought all this to an end.
She was a devoted friend. When a friend of hers had to visit Maharagama it was Irma who reached out to her, caring and sharing in her problems.
She was a loving and caring wife to her husband Dr Louis Goonawardene. She was a loving sister to Noreen and Lyn her sister and brother and Ithali her sister in law from the day of her marriage.
She always remembered the fifth commandment honor your father and your mother. She nursed her parents in their old age until their death. She was loved by all her children and their spouses and all her grand children.
Last but not least I cannot forget her only daughter Nirmali and her husband Hiran who cared for her very lovingly in their home right to the end. She was a true friend to many, a devoted Christian and a beautiful human being. I will end by quoting an epitaph:
TO THE WORLD YOU WERE JUST A WOMAN BUT TO US WHO KNEW YOU, YOU WERE THE WORLD.
Your memory dearest Irma will live in my heart for ever more.
– Dr. Philine Peiris.