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A Mother is remembered on this wonderful day called Mother's Day
(A Migrated Knol)
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| My Beloved Father P T Varghese and My Mother |
Contents
- July 8th 2011.
- Three Years Just Passed By...
- Pleasant Memories of My Mother is
- Still Lingering...
- My Beloved Mother Saramma Varughese
- A Photograph with her sister, sister-in-law, children and & Grand Children.
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| Screen shot taken on 7th December 2011 |
July 8th, 2011. Years Passed by... Pleasant Memories of My Mother is Still Lingering In Our Minds...........
My Beloved Mother Saramma Varughese:
This is a brief memoir of my mother 'Saramma Verghese' (85 years) who passed away on 8th July 2008.
Some of the prominent evangelists at that time in the brethren movement M/s.
K V Simon, Lonappen Upadesi, Peter Upadesi, K G Kurian, E P Varghese, C
T Mathai, A P Paily, Vattakattu Varkey Upadesi and a few other's
through their inspirational messages and classes strengthened them to be
firm in their faith. Though they faced many problems from their family
members, whenever these brethren conducted gospel meetings and Bible
classes in the nearby places, they made it a point to attend those
gatherings. A few more Christians joined the faith and started a small
gathering at Pothanicade near Parambencherry.
The
Lord was faithful to His daughter and gave her a partner who was a
believer. Mr. P T Varghese from Kota, Chengannur, who was a God-fearing,
humble, loving and well-disciplined person. Evangelist K P Stephen of
Thiruvankulam and his wife (she can be seen in the adjacent picture--in
white dress holding a bag) took initiative in this matter and they were
united in holy matrimony. At that time my father was working as a
pattern maker in the carpentry section of the erstwhile Pampa River
Sugar Factory - Now Travancore Sugars and Chemicals Ltd-. My mother was
an ideal wife to my father and a loving mother to all of us and an
excellent homemaker like the woman in Proverb 31. She was a mature
woman, devoted wife, mother, honorable, humble, unselfish and kind. She
was a caring and loving mother not only to us but also to the neighbors,
especially to the fellow believers. She was so keen to share whatever
we had with others especially with those in the Lord's service. In spite
of our tight financial budget, she always made it a point to set apart
some amount for this purpose.
Those days running a family of nine members was a great task. With my
father's meager salary it was difficult to make both ends meet. On my
mother's initiative, father bought a cow and started selling milk and
manure to the neighboring people and earned a small income from that. At
that time we were staying in the company's staff quarters. There was a
high demand for our milk as it was not diluted. My mother was so strict
that she never diluted the milk with water for sale. Apart from this, my
father used to work in the evening hours after his eight hours duty at
the factory. He made different types of wooden furniture with good
quality wood. This too was in high demand because of the carpentry skill
and the reasonable prices.
My Beloved Mother Saramma Varughese:
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| Saramma Varghese |
This is a brief memoir of my mother 'Saramma Verghese' (85 years) who passed away on 8th July 2008.
She was the first daughter of Mr. Thomman Chummar and Sara. Her parents
were from an aristocratic family named Pappalil. They lived in a village called Maaraady, near Moovattupuzha town.
She was brought up with strict discipline of the Syrian Christian
tradition. Her mother Mrs. Sara was the first person (who came to know
the Lord in their family) in her family to know the lord. Along with her
conversion, some wonderful things happened in their home. Her mother
Sara's father Mr. Ulahannan Kakkatuputhenpurayil was staying at
Palakkuzha village. At that time there was no gospel preached or heard
in that village. One day two evangelists visited the village and decided
to do some open air preaching, they started singing some songs and was
about to start preaching, all of a sudden an angry mob reached the spot
and caught them and started beating.
Their plan was to kill them and throw their bodies into the nearby river. One
of the evangelists was Br. P H Peter lovingly called as "Peter Upadesi"
(Now with the Lord), father of Evangelist George Peter of Chittoor.
Hearing the news Mr. Ulahannan, my mother's grandfather ran to the
place, he being the village leader, no one was brave enough to protest
against him. By the time it was dark, fearing that the angry mob might
attack them again he gave shelter to them at his home. That night the
servants of God shared their testimony and spoke to the family about
Christ and the salvation they could gain by believing in Christ. That
was a turning point in their family and my mother's mother accepted
Christ as her personal savior.
Her faith was so strong and she started witnessing the truth to other
members of her family. Her husband Thomman expressed his displeasure and
was dead against to her new faith. But among the five children, Saramma
and her younger sister Mariamma accepted Christ as their personal
savior. Later they decided to take baptism according to the Word of God.
The news spread throughout the village and it was shocking news to the
relatives and the nominal orthodox Christian society. The Orthodox
Syrian Jacobite Church ex-communicated them and they were considered outcasts
and were not allowed participating even in the funeral services
of their relatives. They faced severe persecution from inside the family
as well as from outside.
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| A Photograph taken 20 years back at the time of my younger brother's marriage. My mother sitting along with her sister Mariamma (left) and my father's sister at the center. My two sisters at the left, with my brothers and their families. Myself and my wife standing at the right with my son Charles |
My mother's brothers were dead against her faith and they were not willing
to take care of their parents so she decided to stay unmarried to look
after the parents. Meanwhile, her younger sister got married.The years
went by and the parents were getting old. After their death, Saramma's
life and safety became a question, so they convinced her to get married.
A few years passed by and their firm faith in the Lord and the
exemplary life they led in the Lord enabled her other family members too
to come into the faith. Some of their children are in the service of the Lord.
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| Another Photograph taken at the time of my younger brother Shaji's marriage day. PV and his wife standing at both sides |
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| PV with his parents and younger brothers Sunny & Shaji at his right and left. A photograph taken at our company Quarters. |
Through
their dedicated life, all the children got educated and are settled in
different parts of the world. By the grace of God all are in the
Christian faith. She was an instrument in bringing them up in the fear
of the Lord. She continued steadfast in the faith till her departure
from this earth. My mother set a good example for us to follow. We, her
children are very happy to follow in her foot prints. Though, she was a
silent doer of the Word of God we are sure that her reward in heaven
will be much greater. We thank God for being the children of this loving
mother.
We
are seven children, five brothers and two sisters - Rosamma John
Secunderabad, P V Thomas Bangalore, Ammini Daniel U S A, P. T. John
Chennai, Philip Verghese Secunderabad, Paul Varghese Pulikeezhu, Shaji
Varghese Palghat.
Sons
and Daughters-in-law: John Philip Secunderabad, Glory Thomas Bangalore,
M V Daniel U S A, Sally John Chennai, Omana Philip Secunderabad, Nessy
Paul Pulikeezhu, Annie Shaji Palghat.
(Note:
For the early history of my mother I am indebted to her sister
Mariamma's elder son Joykutty Chacko, an evangelist in Kothamangalam,
Kerala)
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Philip --
I
was touched by your Knol, a very nice tribute. Do you suppose that
tolerance of humans regardless of their beliefs should be taught at a
very early age? Your story recounts essentially hysterical fear and
hate-based behavior. If only tolerance, acceptance and love were taught
and reinforced during childhood, such events would dissipate.
My
sister-in-law, an otherwise wonderful woman, would sit in my home and
lecture that unless I accepted her specific brand of born-again
Christianity, I was condemned to hell. I questioned her to point out the
problem of a sparsely-populated heaven, since her specific brand
embraced far less than 10,000 souls. It did not matter. She was
incapable of intellectually accepting logic. She chose to remain
mentally lazy, believing the dogma from the pulpit of her church without
challenge.
Tolerance takes intellectual bravery and energy.
Blind faith is in my opinion at the root of hatred and war. As humans we
need to question and test endlessly. What do you think?
Apr 27, 2010 8:04 AM
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P V Ariel
Murry Shohat
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P V ArielThanks Murry
Murry—
Thanks for the comment, good to know that you are touched by mother’s exemplary short history. Yes, tolerance of humans no doubt should be taught at the early stage. For that matter not only this but many other good moral fibers should be taught at the tender age that will definitely have an impacting effect till a person’s death. As far as I know it will not dissipate.
About your Sis-in-law’s faith, I really appreciate her guts to lecture to a person like you about her unchallenging faith. LOL. and I fully agree with her, though a bit religious oriented subject, since you raised this let me put my view, Yes, her stand is a wonderful and an acceptable one, and as you said very few in this world opt for that, yes the Bible too says it, only a meager number follow this truth. The people who opt and go towards that way is very very less comparing to the other groups towards hell… That road to heaven is very short but towards the other side that road is wide open and many I mean the majority blindly rush towards it to their peril.
Yes, as humans we need to question and search the truth, but I am sure that will not be an endless search. If one genuinely searches for the real truth he will find it. Many scholars and researchers found out that real truth where your Sis-in-law put her firm faith. Murry I don’t want to elaborate this further but would like to put a long full stop here.
Thanks again for your genuine concern towards this subject.
Yours lovingly
phil
Last edited Apr 26, 2011 10:00 AM
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Murry Shohat
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Benjamin R
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PV,
your mother is a great personality. You are a blessed person to have
such a loving mother. My belated deepest condolence to you and your dear
ones. No doubt, this is a fitting tribute to your loving mother. Ben
Last edited Nov 3, 2008 9:04 AM
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Thank you Br. Ben for the encouraging words. God bless. Love. Philip
EditDeleteReport abusive commentPosted by P V Ariel, Nov 3, 2008 9:04 AM
Ariel Sir, I have gone through this life story and the photographs -particularly - what you mentioned about your beloved mother, with interest. You should be pround of yourself as her son and, of course, vice versa. With regards and best wishes to you and your family.
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