Appreciation: Muriel Grace Cooray nee Fernando

Muriel Grace Cooray passed away soon after All Souls Day in November 2023. She was a planter’s wife and lived a widow for ten years after the demise of her husband Aloysius Cooray of Balangoda. Muriel was my husband's elder sister. She was more a sister to me, than a sister-in-law

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She was the second girl in a family of five girls and five boys, a very pretty lady, respected and adored by the estate workers as the lady from Colombo. Having had an early education in a convent school in Colombo, she was groomed to live a life in the city. But fate took another turn and she left to an estate bungalow in Balangoda until her demise. She lived in a large mansion built by her father-in-law, surrounded by a large garden where a couple of pet deer were kept. There were two or three hunting dogs too. There were also fruit trees such as mangosteens, seedless guavas, oranges and mangoes along with a few coconut trees in the vicinity. Their tea estates and paddy fields were in close proximity to this house.