Peace Activists are probably aware that Sunanda Gandhi passed away on February 21st. Sunanda was the wife of Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi.
I received an email from Arun and thought that some of you in the Rochester, New York area might want to knows that there will be a memorial service at the Interfaith Chapel on the University of Rochester campus on Saturday, March 17 from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m
I will share Arun’s email below.
Dear Friends:
For those of you who sent me condolence messages my family and I are deeply grateful. However, there are many that I was not able to inform of Sunanda's sudden transition on February 21st, I seek their pardon.
Sunanda passed peacefully. The doctor who has been practicing for 55 years told me that he had not seen anyone so peaceful and so glowing in death as Sunanda. He said she must have been divinely ordained. My son and his wife who were there during the last moments also confirmed the doctors findings. My son says he had not seen his mother so peaceful and happy as she was in death. It is nice to know that she is happy where ever she is. Yet, it is sudden and we cannot help feeling lost and distraught.
We, the family, have decided to commemorate her life by building a residential school for children rescued from poverty and child labor. The welfare of women and children, especially those coming from destitution and degradation were issues close to Sunanda's heart.
I recall when a news reporter in Birmingham, Alabama, asked Sunanda how many children she had she blurted out 127. The reporter was understandably aghast and said: "What?" Oh, I mean, said Sunanda, that I have 2 biological children and 125 adopted. Well, the fact is that while working in the villages of India we found hundreds of babies who were abandoned at birth on the streets by unwed mothers to avoid the stigma. Many of these babies would die of malnourishment before they completed a year. So, it became our mission to find suitable homes for these children and many of them remain our "grandchildren" even today. I think it is appropriate that we continue her life's work in the villages of India bringing solace to women and children.
Those of you who wish to contribute whatever you can to this project I suggest you make out a check in the name of the Gandhi Institute and mark it
"Sunanda Gandhi Memorial"
[snipped personal address]
I will make sure you get a receipt from the Institute which will be valid for tax deduction.
Also those who live close to Rochester may join us in a memorial service at the Interfaith Chapel on the University of Rochester campus on March 17 (Saturday) from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. to celebrate her life.
With warm good wishes
-- Arun and family
Peace and Blessings, Sunanda. So many children will miss you.
As our Dine relatives say, May you walk in beauty.
For contributions to the Memorial Fund:
M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence
c/o Christian Brothers University
650 East Parkway, South Memphis, TN 38104
(901) 452-2824 Phone
(901) 452-2775 Fax
E-mail address: director [at] gandhiinstitute.org
The M.K. Gandhi Institute is a 501(C)3 non-profit organization.
For I can see that in the midst of death life persists, in the midst of untruth, truth persists, in the midst of darkness light persists.
– M. K. Gandhi (Young India, October 11, 1928)