Hey Presto! Ninety memorable years have gone by yet Brother Jerome is alive and kicking! The Holy Scripture says, "The life span of a man is seventy years, or eighty for those who are strong," but Brother Jerome is stronger still, he is ninety not out! The one and only nonagenarian we have in the District of Colombo., at the moment! All, the Brothers are certainly proud of his remarkable milestone!

I came under Brother Jerome’s benign influence in 1956 when I entered the Juniorate at Mutwal, Colombo 15. Ever since, it has been a long lasting friendship. He was our beloved sub-Director, our English teacher, a friend to all and an enemy to none! I had come from a humble hamlet in the District of Mannar, and hence I was struggling with my English. My grammar was awful and spelling horrible. All I knew was, ‘the imperfect past, made the future, tense! I lost my voice when I was asked to convert an active voice into a passive voice. I remained passive alright throughout the class. The kind-hearted Brother Jerome saw my predicament, called me aside for a pep-talk. He told me not to fight shy of my mistakes, gave me a very simple method to master the rudiments of grammar and introduced me to the wonderful world of books. In a matter of months I was making progress by leaps and bounds and in the process, devoured all the books of Jules Verne and Dr. R. L. Spittle that were in vogue. I have been using the same method taught by Brother Jerome, for the last fifty years of my teaching career and it has paid immense dividends! I am eternally grateful to Brother Jerome, whose genial company I’m still enjoying.

Brother Jerome is a die-hard religious, authentic and devout; very regular and punctual for spiritual exercises. He is fired with zeal and enthusiasm with regard to matters spiritual. Defending the virginity of Our Lady is his forte. Guests to our house often get a bellyful of Marian theology from Brother Jerome. Tenaciously he will hang on to his views and woe to anyone who interrupts his explanation. He wrote’ a book on Our Lady and speaks volumes about it. Praying assiduously for His Holiness the Pope and his intentions is one of his past times. He has written to the Pope, Presidents and Prime Ministers on various matters. Once he even wrote to the LTTE Supremo, Mr. Velluppillai Prabakaran, to stop the war! Our Brothers constantly tease him., some even attack his traditional views, but he staunchly defending his views, would breathe ire and brimstone on them. Table conversation would be dull and insipid, without Brother Jerome’s smart retorts and humouros interventions, for he is the live-wire of our Community. Keeping abreast of the times, he would speak on sports, business and politics. The American President Barak Obama should be happy to have an ardent fan in Brother Jerome, who almost memorized his inaugural speech. Quoting appropriate passages he would chastise the recalcitrant individuals.

With uncanny accuracy he can forecast the weather. Having observed the rapid changes in the environment in recent times, the movement of the South-West and the North-East monsoons, he is quite accurate in his predictions. When Brothers purposely contradict him, with lightning speed he would thunder his displeasure. When Brothers hint that he had lost his true vocation and that he could have been a brilliant meteorologist, he has a hearty laugh at them. Whenever Sri Lanka is playing a crickets match, Brothers would turn to him for his expert comments. As a Junior Novice he had even captained a cricket team and forced De La Salle College to follow on! He is proud of his achievement.

Brother Jerome has got into his head that, "A bell is not a bell, till it is rung and a song is not a song, till it is sung!" He reminds us of Anthony Quin in the ‘Hunchback of Notre Dame.’ He revels in ringing our Chapel bell, ding-dong merrily on high, for the greater glory of God,’ but much to the annoyance of the disgruntled monks! At every party he would make use of his soprano voice to entertain his audience. On his 90th birthday he sang two songs for us, "Going to the moon, 911 and the "Topsy-Turvy World" unconcerned whether others were listening to him or not! His memory is absolutely prodigious!

After serving practically all our institutions (except SXC Mannar) in Sri Lanka, he went to Tuticorin, South India, to work for a couple of years in the Mangalagiri Novitiate, where Brother Austin Dee was the Director of Novices. Brother Jerome often refers to his profitable experiences in the Novitiate and about that eminent religious Brother Austin Dee, the erstwhile Director of St. Benedict’s College, Kotahena.