Leela Raman (nee Srinath), known affectionately as Mayu, passed away peacefully on January 16, 2025 in Fitchburg, Wisconsin.

Born in Shivasamudram, Karnataka, India, to Nuggehalli Gopaliyengar Srinath and Laxmi Srinath (nee Rangaswamy), she was preceded in death by her parents, sisters Vatsala and Nirmala, her brother Prabhakar, husband Raman and favorite pets Fred, Rex, and Skip.

She grew up in Bangalore and graduated from Maharani College and joined the workforce to support herself and her family.

She moved to New Delhi where she was a library assistant at the United States Information Service (USIS) and then a Kannada news reader for All India Radio, India’s Public Broadcaster. While in New Delhi she was wooed by her future husband-to-be, Narayan Raman. The couple were married in 1957.

After their marriage she supported her husband as he held various positions in government in different parts of the country before finally settling down in Hyderabad, India. While keeping up a hectic schedule she managed to raise two sons. She doted on them and, after her sons were married, on their spouses as well - often referring to them as the daughters she never had. She always found time to keep in touch with her extended family and was the glue that held them together.

She was active in supporting women’s education and empowerment and loved music and the fine arts. She loved company and politics and if you knew her and are reading this you know what we are talking about. Her adventurous spirit was seen in her prowess at bicycling (winning a state competition while in college), participation in car rallies, and paragliding on a trip to Thailand. She navigated life as skillfully as she did driving her Premier Padmini car in the chaotic traffic in India.

Her husband died in 2022 and her life in the few years prior to his death revolved around caring for him, even more than she had over the years they had been married. Not a day would pass that she wouldn’t remind him, often several times a day, to use his hearing aids. For some reason he didn’t use them, likely because he never heard her.

She moved to the US in 2022 and adjusted to her new life, uprooted rather suddenly from her home, her friends, her prayer group, and the life she knew. She made up for the loss of physical contact with her friends in India by calling them very early in the morning because she knew their schedules and was certain they would be up - this was the only time she could catch them before they got busy with their day.

Her relatives and friends were impressed by how she was always so well put together. She had a beautiful smile, keen sense of humor, and collection of jokes (a seemingly endless supply often fed to her through her WhatsApp contacts) that lit up the room and lifted the spirits of those around her. She cherished her friendships and relationships and if you knew her you knew she loved you and would like you to enjoy life and crack a few jokes while doing so.

Her grandkids were her joy, and her iPad an inseparable companion. Predictive algorithms were no match for her sometimes random access to websites.

As her health failed in the last few months she could not stop wondering why she could not do more. “The mind is willing but the body is not,” she often said. Another of her oft repeated words of wisdom was that it takes two hands to clap. So please take a moment to clap or recognize, in your own way, her remarkable life.

A small private ceremony will be held on Monday, January 20 before her cremation.

In lieu of flowers please consider making a donation to Agrace Hospice in Fitchburg (https:// www.agrace.org/), Wisconsin or a charity of your choice.

The family would like to thank all the relatives and friends, her health care providers at SSM Health and the staff at Agrace Hospice. Special thanks to Maria Gonzalez, Srini Ramachandra, Amara Baktha, Lalita Sankaran and Chai.

She is survived by her sons, Vinu (Archana), Bharat (Prasanna); grandsons, Kartik (Kami), Aditya, Anand (Lucy), and Siddharth; Kumari her surrogate daughter, nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews.

Online condolences may be made at www.gundersonfh.com.

Gunderson Fitchburg
Funeral & Cremation Care
2950 Chapel Valley Road
(608) 442-5002

Leela Raman

November 21, 1932 - January 16, 2025

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