THE GOOD DIEYOUNG
Fawzia was my best friend and she was my “adopted” sister. She had been a part of my life for more than thirty years, half the life she spent on this earth.
We first met in 1982 when we were in Oman and became best friends. She would visit me several times a year, and although distances separated us often, she would always make it a point to keep her visits regular.
In 1987, when she moved to the United States, it was her help and kindness and encouragement that led me to where I am today. What stands out in my mind when I think about my dear friend Fawzia is what a good person she was. When I decided to practise in America, it was her address and phone number I used for applications. She filled more than twenty applications for me. Because of her, I came to the United States. After I had my second son, Fawzia took time off to help me take care of him in 1992.
In 1999, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, but she was too strong to let it take over her life. It was very sad for me when she moved to Hong Kong, but she still came to visit us – always making a point to be a part of my life and my son’s. My last trip with Fawzia was when she came to take a trip with me to visit colleges for my younger son. We drove south up to South Carolina, west up to Pittsburgh, and north up to Boston with her and we would’ve been lost without her help and guidance.
We had retirement plans to either live in her house in Sri Lanka when I retired, or she would come to live in mine in the States. We planned to travel together to countries we had not visited. We planned to go round the world on the Queen Mary. Then we would enjoy our retirement and take care of each other until we were 90. When we were discussing these, one day Fawzia asked who would go first, and I said in our 90s neither would know other person was gone due to Alzheimer’s or dementia. So neither would feel the loss.
I never imagined that she would leave me orphaned. I’m so sad that I won’t have my best friend there with me to enjoy all the things we haven’t seen yet, done yet. But now she is in a place where she can see everything, the whole world!
When we spoke last during the New Year she told me she would not come to see me this year but she would visit me in 2013, and, although now I know she cannot make it, I know that I will see her again someday and she will look-over all of us from Heaven.
My dear Fawzia, I apologize I could not come to see you before you passed away. Hope you knew how sad I was to hear the bad news, and you did not give me enough time to come and see you to say Good Bye but I want you to know I was planning to come and see you in Sri Lanka a week after you have made through this horrible event courageously.
Now I know why they say that "The Good die young".
I will miss you for the rest of my life. Have peace in Heaven and May God be with you until the eternity.
(Mrs. Braine, a lecturer at Shue Yan University, Hong Kong, passed away on January 28 in Sri Lanka from injuries received in a road accident.) Dr. Swarna Jayasinghe
New Jersey, USA