07/21/2012, 00.00
SRI LANKA
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The extraordinary life of a 'supermom'

by Melani Manel Perera
Millrad Monica Wickramaratna Denipitiya celebrated her 75th birthday with her 11 children, 29 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. The years spent with the nuns of the Good Shepherd, whose teachings she passed onto her family, were crucial.

Kadawatha (AsiaNews) - With 11 children, 20 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, Millrad Monica Wickramaratna Denipitiya, from Kandy (Northern Province), has had "a full life blessed by the Lord." To mark her 75th birthday, 'Supermom' organised a thanksgiving Mass with the participation of her entire family. The daughter of a nurse mother and a real estate agent father, Ms Denipitiya can say that the teachings of the Good Shepherd nuns made all the difference in her life.

"My parents travelled a lot for work," she explained. "Therefore, I had to change schools many times. I spent most of my time in hostels run by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd where I experienced the value of prayer and the encounter with God. What I learnt in those days, I brought to my family. Only through the education I received, I could offer my children an exemplary life.

Her Catholic parents also played an important role because they often explained Christianity to the people they worked with, "many of whom eventually converted."

Six of her 11 children are male and five are female. Her oldest son is 55; the youngest is 327.

"We do not how our mother was able to hold the family together and weave ties and love and harmony among all of us," her daughters said. "But she is blessed by God."

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