Christmas this year will be special for Mrs. Mercy Devabakkiam Koilthai Artemas and her family, as it comes shortly after she has turned 100.
Visitors to the centenarian’s Nachi Kurichi suburb residence will be struck most by her alertness and quick wit, and the eyes that twinkle with an innocent, ageless charm behind thick glasses.
With a life that has spanned a hundred years, the ‘then’ versus ‘now’ conversation becomes almost inevitable. And yet, it is equally irrelevant, because her close relatives say Mrs. Mercy doesn’t believe too much in dwelling on the past.
A hard life
Born on November 13, 1915 at Munnar, Kerala, (“just a day before before Nehru,” she chuckles) Mrs. Mercy is originally from Sawyerpuram in Tuticorin district.
Mercy was five, and her younger brother Peter two and a half-years-old, when their mother passed away. Their father S.P. Daniel remarried, but separated from his new wife when she proved to be an indifferent step-mother to his children.
From then, Mercy and Peter grew up under their father’s direction in Madras. Even at that tender age, Mercy stayed at home for two years to help her father, a clerk at the Bursar’s office in Madras Christian College, with Peter’s upbringing, as a result of which both she and her brother started school in the same class.
“They were devoted to each other,” says Mrs. Kokila Alexander, Mercy’s niece with whom she stays, of her father and aunt. “She was shattered when my father passed away in 2000, but consoled herself by saying that though her brother had gone, he had left behind his six children to take care of her.”
Besides Mrs. Kokila, Mercy’s nephew Dr. Kingsley Jebakumar and niece Mrs. Rani Paul and their families are based in Tiruchi, and always at hand to help their beloved ‘Athai.’
Three more siblings are based in different cities, and all members of the extended clan were recently in attendance at the thanksgiving meeting at the Bishop Heber College auditorium last month on Mrs. Mercy’s landmark birthday.
Her close relatives say Mrs. Mercy doesn’t believe too much in dwelling on the past.
Helping hand to all
Mercy spent her adolescent years as a boarder in St. Ebba’s Girls High School, Royapettah, while Peter stayed with their father. Upon finishing school in 1934, she joined St. Christopher’s Teachers Training School (as a day scholar), while her brother was admitted to Madras Christian College.
Mercy worked as a teacher for three years, but gave up her career after she married her cousin Artemas R. Weyte in 1939, in a ceremony that turned out to be the first wedding solemnised at the Madras Christian College’s chapel. The couple spent time in Madras, Bangalore, Hyderabad and finally settled in Tirunelveli. Artemas was an expert in automobiles, who ran a garage of his own and also supplied cars for wealthy clients in Madurai and Tirunelveli. His mechanical skills were tapped by his Bishop Caldwell College classmate, ‘Kappalottiya Thamilan’ V.O. Chidambaram, to help maintain the vessels of the first indigenous Indian shipping service that he ran during the British Raj.
The Christian community in Tirunelveli remembers Artemas for his untiring efforts, alongside Reverend Canon Paul Manickam, in building the St. Thomas Church at Perumalpuram in the 1960s.
Mercy has a great love for animals, and her Tirunelveli home used to have cows, goats, lovebirds, poultry and cats. “I had one very intelligent cat who used to come for prayer, and then purr ‘amen’ when it got over,” recalls Mrs. Mercy, smiling at the distant memory.
Her home was also a refuge for students who were unable to get a place in the Sarah Tucker College nearby. As the eldest daughter-in-law, Mrs. Mercy supported all the six younger siblings of her husband, and in time, became a revered mother-figure to them.
Artemas Wyte passed away in 2002, at the age of 90, shortly after the couple moved to Tiruchi.
“Athai and uncle were like lovebirds,” says Mrs. Kokila, “they were childhood friends, and would fight and make-up just like children throughout the 63 years of their marriage.”
‘My real friends’
“My nieces and nephews are my friends,” says Mrs. Mercy, when asked about her life now. “They take care of me, take me out with them, talk to me… they are my real friends.”
“She misses her contemporaries a lot, but won’t linger on the past,” says Dr. Kinglsey. “She rarely misses Sunday mass. In fact, she stays back for almost an hour after service, to pray for others and bless the youngsters who seek her out.”
One of the reasons for her longevity, is her deep interest in the here and the now, he adds. “She’s very interested in everything – as much in religion as in the newspaper, or watching TV,” he says. “What I’ve learned from her is not complain and to be happy with what you have.”
Christmas will be all the more special this year for this close-knit family and its 100-year-old star. “Athai enjoys the festive season, getting a new sari and cutting the cake. She lives, not just exists,” smiles Dr. Kingsley.
