Letter from grandpa Charles Stanley Braine to daughter Alice, 1941

Aunty Alice had saved this letter all these years.

Explanation and Comments

LP at the top right hand corner refers to Lewis Place, on the beach in Negombo. According to Aunty Alice, grandpa stayed every weekend at Miss Carey's guest house in Lewis Place. The guest house was for European Planters.

Grandpa owned a house, "Stanlodge", at Lewis Place, but he may have preferred to stay at Miss Carey's to enjoy the company of Europeans. "Stanlodge" was eventually given to Aunty Amy (Mrs. Chelvaratnam) who sold it before emigrating to Australia.

In the letter, the "Bill" refers to Bill LeMotte, husband of Aunty Kate. Bill owned a farm in Teldeniya.

The mention at the end of page 2 of Aunty and Uncle refers to Mr. and Mrs. Phillips, grandpas' very good friends. Mr. Phillips was a Trustee of grandpa's Will.

In the letter, grandpa leaves specific instructions regarding his funeral.  He says that he "hates the sight of people in black" and requests that his children not dress in mourning. He would like a "quiet and simple funeral, no flowers only a simple bunch of ordinary garden flowers". He says "hope it won't years yet before I pass beyond". In fact, he lived for three more years.

I doubt if grandpa received the quiet funeral he asked for. Going by the account of a Catholic priest who converted him to Catholicism on his deathbed (which I have described in a previous blog entry), his passing may have been traumatic. His children wanted him converted to Catholicism, his good friend Mrs. Phillips put up a tough resistance. As a compromise, although he died a Catholic, he was buried in the Anglican section of the General Cemetery, Negombo, not far from Lewis Place.

The following entry is from by dad's writings:  

"In 1944 my father had to be moved on doctor’s advice to a home close to the sea beach, and he lived in the home of Mr. Grenier at Lewis Place. I used to visit him once a week as he was convalescing. He moved about in the house on a wheel chair, the consequences resulting from a fall from a horse some years back."

Another anomaly. Aunty Alice says grandpa stayed at Mrs. Carey's while my father wrote that grandpa stayed at Mr. Grenier's. 

Actually, the fall may have been from a bullock cart at Mawatte Estate. Great-grandfather Charles Frederick fell off a horse.