Dear Vithiyan and Bala (Part 1) Very sad to hear about the passing of your mother. Completely unexpected and a shock. Please accept our heartfelt condolences and let me reminisce briefly about your great amma. On the 31st of December 2024 I got a message “Happy New Year to all - Karuna anni”. Alas so much has changed within three short weeks. Your amma and I always maintained some contact. She called nearly an year ago to inform me that my uncle living in the UK had passed on. Two years ago she visited us in Tellippalai when my mother was in poor health and spent quality time advising her and us about the prognosis and how to come to terms with the inevitable. As we were growing up your appa (Karuna Athan) was a role model for us. This then transitioned into both your parents becoming our role models. I always felt your amma and appa were truly made for each other. Strong family values, exceptional professional achievements, simple unassuming lifestyle, full of empathy for those in need, exceptional commitments to our people back home (this made them spent years serving our people under difficult and risky circumstances and your early growing up in Jaffna) and not the least the spirituality that grounded them. Honestly I don’t know a couple, each on their own right, possessing such admirable characteristics in abundance. In that sense it is truly the end of an era for all of us (cousins, nieces and nephews) who are blessed to have had family ties with your parents - whom we loved and respected in equal measure. Part 2 continues.