For Cora Unashamed

Regina Taylor as Cora 

Hello Cora

It’s me Sandika

Remember, we met about few souls back

NO i don't expect you to remember me

I understand it is not possible for you to remember me because of the tasks you were assigned with even back then, Cora

You had to take care of Jessica’s family and you were worried about not your family but about ‘Jessica and her family’ let me not forget how much you loved Mary the elder sister of Jessica

I used to walk the same path that you and Josephine used to walk, until she reaches her favorite place

But I used to walk with my father Cora, not alone or with my mother

She had different tasks to taken care of like ‘sewing as a way of living’

I like to tell you the name of the path that I used to walk alone and with my father back then, dear Cora

The path had a name

Ihala gama – (the Upper Village) Thalagolla paara

I always used to wonder how was it possible for my father and mother to find a place in 
Ihalagama instead of them renting a house in ‘Pahalagama – the village in a corner part of the big area

Yes

Even in my village back then, there were differences categorized as ‘lower and upper’

Is Jessica’s belonged to ‘Middle’ or Upper Middle class, Cora?

This is not gossiping dear Cora. I am just trying to understand the ‘socio cultural’ differences, their awareness on ‘rights’ and health care facilities and medications

Actually I have no doubts about the ‘literature’, ‘hospitality’, they are as rich as your heart Cora and your disappointed looks reminded me of maids and how maids became less important when the machines like ‘washing machines’ take a fairly good space of the house than you like people dear Cora that is thanks to the innovations, thanks to ‘revolutions – sciences’ BUT DON'T YOU THINK THAT IT IS VERY GOOD then you will have to learn go to schools , send your kids to schools not keeping them at home ' slavery' or care takers , house maids i don't think that women should involve in such job categories any more lets encourage every child to get a proper education and 

lets send across the message of the importance of education what do you think about following lines dear Cora

Dear gents and ladies there will never be any maids or care takers in this world you will certainly have to do your own cooking and washing 

there are socio-cultural struggles  that shows within such things too my dear Cora 

they loose their jobs when all the tasks are taken over by robotics or by machines 

that is why i think 'Education is important for all layers of people

i am sure you too beleive in that

Was the cemetery only for your kind people where do the others rest in peace?

I like that place, Cora it is so calm and quite, not very populated no one seemed disturbing them

I like such kind place

Ah! Cora

I like that little water way, the Stream that you and Joe used to meet and talk

And Cora thanks to all the awareness now, women don’t try any deliveries or abortions on their own. They know where to go, what to do before a delivery. All others and Mothers here know that it is harmful to keep any expecting mothers carelessly at home hiding from others and how harmful it is the ‘bacterial’ infections

Poor Jessica that is what happened to her, Cora

Any woman or a man must remember ‘one’s health is more important than their family status’

Thankfully , awareness is up to sky level now of all age categories   

Now, Cora we here have both private and public hospitals at their convenience and kind doctors like ‘Your Little Town Doctor’ who treated your Josephine and Jessica with ‘Love and Affection’

 ‘Love and affection’ one of the very most inventory medications of all eras I guess

And dear Cora, I like the way you refused the medication or the bottle of medicine that 

Jessica’s mother offered you very kindly

That was not the way you should give medicine to your children ‘you should consult a doctor’ though you know what to take even slightly

You were clever, very clever Cora. You said that you have the medicine that the your town doctor prescribed for your child

i have something else to tell you dear Cora

1t is not clouds that carries away the burden and sorrows, pains of men and women dear cora

In reality it is men and women – kind who come to help you

It is always the kind ones who go and help ‘men and women in need’

You were mistaken I suppose

It is women and men like you Cora, who takes away the burden and sorrow of others for them to ease their hearts and minds

It is you like women who do the needful to erase the sorrows and pains of others, the groups who are in pain

Not clouds , breezes, or waterways my dear, cora

All such have no senses of the ones who breaths and talk dear cora

All those stuffs are unreal my dear

May be they act in a different way let me not become too harsh

It is men and women and like you who has the skills to do so

Have you ever experienced they talking to you

I don’t think so

Have you ever felt that the wind comes and share a smile with you?

All those are unreal. It is not at all possible at all

You should have learned that lesson too my dear cora

Have you ever sent any messages via the clouds to your little angle Josephine?

Before I forget let me tell you I love that little town full with good warm people who were always having smiles and greetings kept for you

So that white boy had a name

That was a classic answer

Unbelievably cora, you were so different

You never had that ‘white and black’ attitude in your mind

Let me hug you for that

You never looked at them in colour of their skins’  but of the warmth and kindness and expects only a friendly full welcome nothing else

You loved Jessica very much exactly the way that loved your little Josephine

That is truly beautiful

I should have helped you to pluck those raw beans, Cora I thought that I was seating beside you without working. How come that it was possible for such thoughts to entangled me in that moment of you working in the home garden

I felt a little ashamed of me, you don’t believe Cora

Some have enough of spaces in their home gardens unfortunately look so deserted but yours was ‘brilliant’

And the kids learn things from such things, right Cora

Don’t think too much about the little laced – ribbon that you found in your backyards, ok

Dear Cora

I don’t feel like changing the topic my dear, always home gardening to abortion’ and again about paths and again about painful subjects

What a painful subject that is, Cora to discuss

 I am no inhuman Cora

I too feel the way that such females feel, the ones who goes for abortion alternatives instead of thinking of keeping them

Almost all women know by now , abortion is illegal’ and doctors goes for such alternatives only when it is really necessary and when they know it is not at all harmful for any human

Instead going for abortion – alternatives raise the awareness of women, dear Cora

I am sure you can do it better than me

You have the will power, I saw it though your bright eyes

Ask all the ‘girls’ and ‘ladies’ to pre plan their dating if they don’t think too much about the societical measures   

Every young girl and also ladies who are not yet ready for any bearing, a child must think about loads of things before they thinking of coupling with someone. They must learn that is what comes under ‘unacceptable things’ not all those other silly little, little ‘prohibitions’ and warnings that one maintains at homes

And I guess it is alright to think of the blood groups these days to avoid pre mature child births, children with disabilities

Correct me if I am wrong

What are the roles of mothers in that way dear Cora, instead of letting their girls to chase after other things

Though I am not a mother I understand how difficult it is to be a good parent in this very complex society.  You all need to go for earnings do you think that often you forget your girls and boys at home

I don’t know, may be not very much, rarely, once in a way it is possible, right?

Don’t get angry with Jessica’s mother, dear Cora

She too is a mother

She is little different than you, that is all. Think of the things that she had to think ‘their status – family’ their prestige’ their reputation earned over years in the town

Think how to meet her committee groups if she did not react to Jessica like that

All those things too, very important Cora

You and I must learn

That are the things that they think bring pleasure in to their lives, families

So we all must respect that right

Correct me if I am wrong, dear Cora

Oh the poor Greek Ice Cream seller

What was his name again?

Did you convey his message to her- Jessica’s?

Was he there at the funeral?

I did not see him there

May be you took all my attention than anything else therefore I didn’t see him

Was he seated back or on the front raw of the church?

You scolded the ‘priest’ for no reason he was not there to break peace and harmony of any situation not that he did not understand what had happened, dear cora

He was helpless

But I am glad you spoke on behalf all the future girls

Then all mothers to be might think well and might learn as to how to understand their sons and daughters’ desires, needs and wants respectively

And I am sure they might find a way how to find love and affection – the best medication ever (the good doctors always prescribe this, I know ) all the deceased ( this what people around me say dear cora) and they think that I must get some medications  

You don’t understand dear cora what they always forget is the illnesses that they suffer from

I suggest that one must find a good sister like mine and don’t necessarily have to go to doctors or to nearest Pharmacy to fetch for medications and to doctor close by always 

when they know that most the medications are there in their ‘within’ without spending a cent they can ask for such medications

The lonely, two little swings reminds me of many things dear Cora it is little sad to talk about such things now let me not pen here my thoughts about lonely swings dear Cora 

I am glad that you were with the Jessica’s Family you didn’t laugh at them when they are in pain and helpless

So I really like you for that

You never insulted them for their lack of awareness on many things

Lack of awareness on certain things of Jessica’s mother though she was an educated women of that era

Actually they are good people, they didn’t treat you differently

And I am glad that you didn’t think of missing your tasks though you were in terrible pain because of your daughter’s illness

I must make a vow to have a friend like you, I am not that lucky

Such thoughts come to my mind in this moment, inevitable.

Take care