Tribute to My Dearest Ivan Annan
Your departing from us creates an emptiness in my heart Ivan Annan, I will hold on to the memories of your joyful life to fill its place instead. I am sad you are no more with us. But, happy in knowing you are in God's hands with your loving wife and soulmate Indra and our dearest daddy, mummy, Selvi and Indra.
As the first born and the only son among the Pedropillai siblings of five, we all had a special place and admiration for you in our hearts and minds. Your protective nature, kept us safe from trouble and kept the aspiring suitors afar. Whilst your fun loving, daring and socially adventurous nature kept mummy and daddy on tenterhooks, on hindsight, it was fun and as a family we enjoyed the excitement. So much so we always longed for your return from boarding school at St.Joseph’s College, when you were away.
You made mummy and daddy very happy and proud through your hard work and excellence in both studies and sports at school. The climax was getting admission to the University of Colombo to read a degree in Mathematics. In a way, I felt, this was also the beginning of many of your passionate and daring social adventures. First, the onset of your passion for all things philosophical and politics, particularly in the realms of religion and politics relating to social inequity and inequality. Second, your loving courtship with Indra. Last but not least the acquisition of the motor scooter and its adventures. The scooter adventures are so many to talk about. The most striking of them all are the many late nights especially during curfew times in Sri Lanka that kept mummy awake to shield from daddy’s scoldings and the threat of the scooter being confiscated.
We followed your progress through postgraduate studies in the UK and your professional career in Sri Lanka, Zambia and the UK with great expectations. Each time we were informed of the progress you've made, we were overjoyed and filled with pride. Ajith and Corinne are a testament to both yours and Indra's faith, values, sacrifices, love and care.
Annan, thank you for being the caring, loving and protective, brother you were and all the help and advice you gave me throughout my life. You have been an exemplary flag bearer for our extended family. You leave behind a legacy of good family and community values and ideals for which we will ever be grateful.
My prayer is for God’s perpetual light to shine upon you and grant you the eternal rest in peace. My thoughts and feelings of your passing away are better expressed in the poem below:
His Journey’s Just Begun - By Ellen Brenneman
Don’t think of him as gone away
his journey’s just begun,
life holds so many facets
this earth is only one.
Just think of him as resting
from the sorrows and the tears
in a place of warmth and comfort
where there are no days and years.
Think how he must be wishing
that we could know today
how nothing but our sadness
can really pass away.
And think of him as living
in the hearts of those he touched…
for nothing loved is ever lost
and he was loved so much.
We all miss you very much Annan
With love
Thangachy
