It was a miracle to have survived the war in Sri Lanka

DushiYanthini

HEAR the UNHEARD

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“I am the youngest and family’s favourite ” shares Louisa Arulamma Thambyrajah

By DushiYanthini Kanagasabapathipillai

Louisa Arulamma Thambyrajah celebrated her centenary birthday on 6th of February 2011 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. She was born on 6th of February 1911 in her ancestral home in Chaavakachcheri in Jaffna Peninsula, North of Sri Lanka. It is a great miracle that she survived the brutal war. Her life, experience and challenges are unbelievable, but they are true. She wanted to celebrate her centenary birthday in Murasumottai in Vanni, North of Sri Lanka which she feels home but due to the prevailing circumstances, she was forced to celebrate it in Colombo at St.Paul’s Milagiriya Church with Eucharistic Worship.

She has 8 sons (her third son died when he was 18 year-old), 12 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren. She moved with her family to Murasumottai on 29th of April 1959, and continued to live there till she got displaced in 2009. She was evacuated months before celebrating the Golden Jubilee of “Navajeevanam” (New Life ~ A home for the boys) in 2009.
She came to Colombo in October 2009 after spending some time in a refugee camp after the displacement. She did not want to come to Colombo, but her children wanted her to rest in Colombo.

“I am the youngest in the family of five girls and three boys. I am the first person in our family who lived this long, and I very much want to go back to my lovely village Murasumottai, celebrate my centenary birthday and live there happily and die peacefully. It is my dream” she said earlier.

“It was a miracle we were not injured and survived. My sons carried me on a chair all the way throughout the journey. Initially I slept on the mat on the ground in the refugee camp. It was difficult for me, so I arranged a few suitcases on the ground and slept on them. I found this was better. I have seen things that I never thought I would in my life. I heard heart-rending tales of human suffering.

Myriad memoires of war are like a long and bad dream. It is a God’s blessing that we all survived unhurt. I thank the God wholeheartedly. I thank him everyday for sustaining me throughout the life. I miss my beautiful village very much.

We built “Navajeevanam” brick by brick while facing physical and economical challenges. It withstood cyclone, floods and war. But, I heard recently that “Navajeevanam” has been destroyed during the last phase of the war in the Vanni, and the belongings were looted. Rubble and ruins are left. I feel very sad when I think about it. I pray for the wellbeing of the people I know. My heart and soul are with them” shares Louisa Arulamma Thambyrajah with pain in her voice and emotions gather on her bright face.The war began when she was in her 60s and was already a grandmother and she remembers everything with clarity.