Recalling the late Tissa Kappagoda's ways.

After the  1960 Batch, Medical entrants, Colombo, get together at Negombo, Sri Lanka recently, my friend Karalliedde (Karals), had these reminiscences of the late Tissa Kappagoda.

Tissa knew during his early days at Trinity College, Kandy that he was different from the other boys at school. The slightest trauma would bring on lumps under his skin and prolonged bleeding which needed  urgent medical attention. He was suffering from Haemophilia. This did not prevent him being an active spectator at all the sports activities at Trinity.

Pain was a recurrent part of his life. He learnt early in life to bear with pain. He got the message that ‘What you cannot cure, you must learn to endure’ during his boyhood.

Once while having a chat with Karals he had told him that ‘Pain as a symptom made one to get angry. The anger invariably was directed at the carers. The carers were invariably the near and dear. A sharp tongue could wound, worse than a sword’. Tissa learnt to control this anger and was remarkably successful at it.

Karals recalled a time when Tissa undertook to drive his car on a long journey. He had severe pain from a swollen joint, but he bit his lips and drove on. When Karals met him at the end of the drive Tissa’s lips were bleeding.

Caring for others at any cost to his physique, was Tissa’s philosophy in life.

‘At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember him’.

                Philip G Veerasingam