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Mrs. Nicol’s Century – By George Braine My father was the youngest of nine children. They grew up not far from Negombo, in their mother’s ancestral village of Boralessa. With time, for employment and marriage, the siblings moved away, three to the Kandy area, the extended family meeting only rarely. Aunty Alice had begun working as a teacher and had later turned to nursing; three of her sisters were nurses, too. While serving at Teldeniya, she met and later married Ned Nicol. For many years, they managed a farm at Aspokuna, in the Digana area. In the early 1960s, aunty retired from nursing to become a full time farmer. She and Ned also had a keen interest in orchids. In the early 1960s, I was studying in Kandy, and met Aunty Alice a few times. We barely exchanged a few words. I saw how busy she was with the farm ...