Running in the Family: Family Tree & Timeline

Timeline:

There are very few specific dates in the memoir which reinforces the impression that it is more of a gesture than a portrait – this is not a historical document.

1928 Mervyn goes to Cambridge and pretends to study

1930 / 31 Mervyn’s parents discover that he has not been studying and come to England to confront him, Mervyn’s engagement to Kaye Roseleap

1931 Mervyn’s engagement to Doris is called off and then reinstated

April 11^th 1932 Doris and Mervyn Marry

Mid 30’s Mervyn starts drinking heavily

Lalla’s dairy closes and she starts visiting others

1938 Philip Ondaatje dies – funeral argument about how much to pay the coffin bearers

1942 Aelian Ondaatje dies – liver problems

1943 Mervyn’s last train ride (Michael is born?)

Mid 40’s Lalla runs a boarding house during the war

1946 Probable date of divorce between Mervyn and Doris – she stayed with him for 14 years

Doris works in the Mount Lavinia Hotel and then the Grand Oriental

Eventually she moves to England (possibly 1947 in V.C. de Silva’s account, p.195)

Late 40’s Mervyn returns to Rock Hill and runs a chicken farm

Aug 15^th 1947 Lalla dies

1950 Mervyn marries again

1954 Michael moves to England (?) – he goes at age 11 which would be 1954 if born in 1943

1971 Insurgence