Tags
Bandaranaike, Church of Ceylon, Cyril Abeynaike, Elephant House, Hewadiwela Christians, J R Jayewardene, Kurunagala, Leo Moonemalle Goonewardene, Lucille Moonemalle, Old Place, Phyllis Ratwatte, Sir Richard Aluwihare, St. Anthony’s Kochchikade
Apart from the joys of staying at the Old Place during the holidays, we also had the pleasure of Leo and Lakshmi coming down practically every fortnight to Colombo to stay with us for a long weekend. They came in his old Humber Hawk, which seemed to us a very grand car, stopping on the way into Colombo at St. Anthony’s Kochchikade, a ritual doubtless instituted by Dottie, who had been a Catholic. That is why Leo and Dottie, and now Lakshmi, are not buried near the rest of the family, but lie in the Catholic section of the cemetery in Kurunagala.
Leo was not especially religious, but Lakshmi was, and was delighted when I decided once to go with her to the Catholic Church at Christmas. My uncle the Bishop was deeply upset that I had not been to his cathedral that day, and was only slightly mollified when I said I had gone to a Catholic Mass at midnight. I suspect he understood that I was getting tired of church-going, and was more interested in spectacle rather than dogma. This has lasted, contrary to his hope that it would be a temporary phase, which he said comfortingly that most young people went through, though I had started it earlier than most.
