email from Pearl

OUR WISHES FOR 2019

Pearl

2:24 PM (3 hours ago)

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Subject: OUR WISHES FOR 2019

Date: 31 December 2018 at 23:52:25 GMT

Dear Family & Friends,
We wish each of you & your families God’s blessings in 2019. May you be blessed with health and happiness but above all be able to face the challenges of 2019 in a positive, optimistic & realistic manner.
For us like many of you 2018 has been busy & just passed us by. It got busier & more challenging towards the end of the year.
Attending the Reunion Of The Batch of 60 in July in Sri Lanka was most meaningful. So good to meet many of our batch mates from 1960 & we were also able to spend time with our Dear friend Duru. Travelling on to Singapore we spent time with our niece Nirmali & husband Hiran as it was the 1st time we were seeing them after Ranee left us in December 2017. We felt truly blessed to see Gnana Acca in the week of her 100th birthday.
October saw us travel to Melbourne Australia to celebrate with our daughter Ashanti & grand daughter Jessica the 1st Birthday of our great grand son Alfred Sidney Walter. A truly happy time when 4 generations lived under one roof for 12 days. There was food, drink, laughter, sight seeing & shopping. Lots of cooking done by the “Old Grand Parents”. We spent 3 days in Perth at our late Sister Ranee & Emmanuel’s home as we wanted to be in their home & also pay our respects to them in the Garden of remembrance at Christ Church Perth. This visit was necessary after the traumatic events of December 2017. Our niece Vasanthi was with us which was so good. We also spent time with Vasanthi, John, Nathan & Anya in Melbourne.
Our children continue with their busy lives. Our grand children continue to progress & develop in a most remarkable manner. Their achievements & activities are just too much to capture adequately in this mail. However we mention our 3 grand son’s who completed their exams with flying colours this year. Joseph his A levels, Hari & Tom their GCSE’s. We felt it was a privilege to be alive & to savour their achievements.
Shehan who is Lead Surgeon & Major Trauma Director Imperial Healthcare & team were in Sri Lanka in November funded by NIHR for Post Conflict work in Jaffna. They had a most successful trip & hope to establish collaborative work to promote Service developments. They wish to also establish a burns Unit but need Funding to achieve it. The building is ready. We are both delighted with this as Pearl’s grand father the late Dr.Clarence Sittampalam was Judicial Medical Officer in Jaffna & Pearl’s mother grew up in Jaffna Fort. It is really a blessing that Shehan is doing this work. Shehan & team also met with our batch mates & friends Jeyadevi & Ganesh.
Over the past 6 weeks Sidney has developed back problems due to Osteoarthritis & has been in some discomfort. Shehan arranged with our GP for his treatment in London. So we have been up & down the M3, M25 & A3 many times a week for a variety of treatment options. We just pray that the treatment so far is successful as surgery is the next option. All this precluded us from writing to each of you earlier.
We both continue with our work for the CQC & will be revalidated in 2020 some 55 years after qualifying.
Thank you for your kind wishes for Christmas. We close with our love & best wishes for 2019.
Sidney & Pearl

Lord,as the year draws to an end,
We thank you for so much:
For all the good things and happy times,
Each smile & loving touch.
We thankYou,too,for other times
When things went sadly wrong,
For being there to understand,You helped us to be strong.
Now as the year is ending,Lord,
We ask you to be near,
To be our guide and guardian
Throughout the coming year.