One of the stories mama (amongst many) fondly told anyone that would listen, was her chance conversation with Hillary Clinton in the summer of 1996 prior to his re-election and during Bill’s re-election campaign.
It was summer time in Arkansas and the Clintons were scheduled to appear at an event in downtown Little Rock. Mama grabbed a couple of her friends and was excited to be at the event not knowing how close she would be to the Clintons. She went early with her friends and found a way to be at the entrance where Hillary and Bill would walk past after there speech. She loved the Clintons. To her they were similar to the Kennedy Family. After the event, as planned the Clintons went past where her group was standing. When Hillary was walking past and shaking hands, mama “forced” her way to the front and yelled “Hillary you went to Sri Lanka and I am from Sri Lanka”. When Hillary heard this she came to mom and shook her hand. Hillary had just returned from her trip to South Asia including a visit to Sri Lanka in 1995. She told mom how much she respects our country, especially how progressive women were in Sri Lanka. Her admiration that our tiny island elected a woman as the president when women’s rights were still in the initial stages in the U.S and hoped one day the American president would be a woman was something that stayed with mama forever.
When mama retold this story, what came out was the admiration of Hillary’s commitment for the advancement of women and childrens’ rights. During the election year Nelum became an Committed follower of Hillary. I was amazed that Nelum at such a young age understood what Hillary meant to the gender equality debate. What I saw in Nelum was the same passion I saw in mama many years before. Even though mama was not part of most of Nelum's life, she had successfully past the baton to the next generation. And her granddaughter will continue that fight until true equality is achieved by her young generation.
Sent by Roy
