To Love is to Live

The extraordinary memoirs of Benitta Stephen, a proud Sri Lankan, a doctor, an educationist, a wife, a mother, a grandmother, and a loyal friend, a delightful laughaholic and workaholic colleague, with an insatiable energy and mindset to help.

The narrative spans eighty years of her life, facing many life challenges in the island, with her parents by her side in the first quarter century. Meeting her spouse, Dr S.J. Stephen, along the hospital corridor culminated in a marriage that spanned the next half a century, a relationship of love, trust, friendship, support of each other’s careers, and an unfailing commitment to family life.

Benitta follows the trail blazed by her husband’s pioneering efforts and service in the field of Cardiothoracic surgery, to craft the best outcome to patients in her chosen field of Ophthalmology, training physicians to be experts in their skills, their empathy and dedication, in that noble gift of giving sight. Her enthusiasm continued as an Anatomist in her mission of instilling the principles of the basic medical sciences in the minds of young budding doctors who are now internationally renowned consultants in diverse medical fields.

She successfully presents, how her family overcame both national upheavals, and the personal tragedies, not letting those events warp their outlook in life, or interfere with their interaction, irrespective of race, religion, cast, position or wealth.

The ‘Nadi Vakiam’ predictions written by Maharishis two thousand years BC, accurately documenting her family names, certain past and future events in the life of her husband and her two children, are mesmerising and mind blowing.

In the last decade, she and Steve decide to migrate to Australia, joining their children and their families, starting new life in Sydney, ‘making it a home away from home’. Strengthening old ties, forming new friendships, learning new skills and integrating with the local Anglican Church community in Killara, she enthusiastically continues her vision to upholding her life’s aspiration, ‘A good life for all whose lives she touches’.

By unravelling her colourful life stories, full of drama, sometimes tragic, often entwined with ingenuity and triumphs, written without embellishments, Benitta has crafted an entertaining account, prompting the reader to turn the pages.

She upholds the timeless maxim, ‘Where there is Love, there is Life’. – Prof Shanti Goonewardene