The demise of Noelline Canagasabey nee Wijeyesinghe, a long-time resident of Bambalapitiya, did dim the lights for the vast circle of friends and relations who knew her.

Quite some years ago, as the only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Martin Wijeyesinghe in an east- west romance, she married the only son of Mudaliyar S. W. Canagasabey, the then Vanniyah Mudaliyar of Batticaloa.

Apart from being a social worker, like her mother, in the days of the great war she served with commendation in the A.R.P (Air Raid Prevention) control centre in Colombo.

She figures in a happy, mix with her husband’s, people in Batticaloa and on the day she breathed her last, in a tremulous voice, my elder brother broke the news to me - aunt Noelline, who was a veritable mother to the five of us, has passed away.’

I remember the day, when that great film idol Gamini Fonseka entered Parliament from Matara and I happened to enter the same place from Batticloa, he introduced himself to me stating that he was the first cousin of aunt Noelline.

Nature had endowed her with much charm. Whether it was in Batticaloa or Colombo she kept captive those round her with jovial anecdotes enlivening the party.

She had artistic talents which her son Shanthi inherited and I recall how with bits of used stamps she would compose portraits of people and an outstanding one of those was, of a patriarch with a jovial face.

Her circle of friends was wide and they will deeply miss her. She left behind her younger son Nihal and her two daughters-in-law Carmel and Therese while her elder son Shanthi predeceased her, and her brothers Frank, Leo and Merril.

The passage of years can never, never remove the fragrance you spread around in your earthly life, dearest aunt.