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Sri
Lanka Journal:
Entry Number 6
Meeting the Survivors: D.W. Somesira
While
I was speaking with some other survivors, Mr. Somesira was
standing on the side and I really did not notice him there. When some
of the people gathered around dispersed, he came up and was introduced
to me. I asked him, through the translator, whether he had lost anyone
in the tsunami. It turns out that he lost his 52 year old wife, his 26
year old son and his three and a half year old grandson. He was not
particularly emotional telling this to me and, in fact, had pretty
blank affect. I told him that I was very sorry for his loss and shook
hands with him.
He is a man who probably blends into the crowd
anywhere. Clearly, he was not a leader in the camp and seemed to keep
to himself. When we moved to another area, he disappeared. A huge rain
storm came up and we were standing on the edge of the tent area with a
little piece of plastic overhead attached to the edge of the tents. Mr.
Somesira reappeared. He had a bath towel over his head and ran through
the rain to where we were standing. Under his shirt he had three color
print outs of photographs with dates and names. These were laminated in
plastic, as were many other photos I was to see. I was curious about
how these prints were made - whether it was before or after the
tsunami. I also wondered how photographs survived being swept out to
sea. At any rate, he had these and came over and handed them to me.
The first photo was of his wife holding onto the their grandchild. She
was a large woman with a big smile and she was obviously proud of the
grandchild she was holding. The next one was of his twenty-six year old
son. He was very handsome and was wearing a suit and tie. This was
clearly a formal studio portrait. The final one was also apparently
from a studio. It was a baby on his stomach posing on some sort of
cushion. On the sides were the dates 2001 - 2004. Mr. Somesira stood
patiently while I looked at these. I went over them again and commented
on what a wonderful smile his wife had and how handsome his son was.
This grandchild was a particularly beautiful baby and I told him that.
He smiled when I said these obvious thing about his family. Then he
grasped both my hands and smiled.
I told him, once again, I was sorry for what a loss this was and also
said I would not forget him or his family. He had obvious pride in all
these family members even though they were dead. He also had not shown
these pictures around much since several members of the camp came over
the see them. From what I could tell, Mr. Somasira was a quiet man who
was not too comfortable in groups of people. Sadly, the people with
whom he made his life were family - now gone in the tsunami. I also
noticed that his neighbors were somewhat surprised that he had gone to
his tent and brought these photos over to me. When we left, he was
talking with a number of people, apparently for the first time.
This man whose role had been to stand on the sidelines, stepped up and
shared the precious memories of his family with us. The group gathered
around was reverently silent. The family he lost was his heritage and
everyone sensed that. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says " . . .for
the tree is known by its fruit." and "The good man out of his good
treasure brings forth good." Certainly this was a good man whose
treasure was of the heart and the heart lived in his lost family. This
visit seemed to be his opportunity to memorialize his lost family in
the midst of his neighbors. The reverent silence was the group giving
him that sacred moment. As for me, I often feel I am a catalyst. If
that was so in this case, then that is fine with me.
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