I will have my share of justice: Fiona
Svatantra Sarjano
Vagator, Aug 7
I have loved Fiona McKeown, the mother of the unfortunate Scarlet, since the very first time I saw her in Goa. I was just full of admiration for the dignity and the courage with which she handled the tremendous disgrace that fell upon her.
Last night, when she popped in my restaurant – My Place – in Vagator, I was absolutely surprised to see her, because I didn’t even know that she was in Goa! So I decided straightaway to do a little exclusive interview with her; nothing scandalous, just a candid conversation about her life. Here it is:
First of all, how is it that you are in Goa?
I was summoned to appear in the Court to make my statement and give evidence, which I did. Then I was cross-examined by the defence lawyer and that was it. Now I’m getting ready to go back to my country.
Can you please tell your story to our readers, because not much has been said about the reason why you came to Goa in the first place. When did you first come to Goa and why?
I came here in March of 2007 with my then boyfriend, who had been living in Goa for many years. He wanted to show me how beautiful Goa is.
We stayed only two weeks, but that was enough for me to fall in love with this place! At that point, all I wanted was to come back here with my eight children, and that’s what I did.
Tell our readers what exactly happened.
About eight months after my first visit, I was back in Goa with all my family. We found two small houses in a complex near the German Bakery in Anjuna, and we lived there for six or seven weeks.
But after that I started to get annoyed, because my dream was not exactly to live in a building and to spend my days making food for my family and nothing else, even though I was living in a beautiful place.
So we bought a big Jeep, put all our stuff in it, and we went past Arambol to Kerim. Here, we slept on the beach, made a camp, cooked our food on a fire, bought fish from the local fishermen, plus some fantastic honey from boys that were collecting it from the jungle… In a word, we were living in paradise.
In this situation we even lost track of the time; of which day of the week it was. We lived a simple life, waking up with the sunrise and going to sleep with the sunset.
After that we went South, and stayed at some other beaches. Then we rented a big shack, where Scarlet joined us from England.
After a few months, I got a message from England saying that my elder son had had an accident. He was hit by a car and he was in serious condition. So I told Scarlet that we have to go back to England immediately. Since she had left on a little trip with some friends, I called her and told her that I would pick her up in Gokarna the next day, and from there we could return together to England.
When I went to Gokarna, she wasn’t there. But there was a message on my phone asking me to call back immediately, for there was some urgent news. I called back the number and Julio answered. He told me that Scarlet was dead! That is the story…
Do you think you will get justice one day, or have you lost all hope?
No, I haven’t lost hope. Even though there are many kinds of justice, I’m sure that one day I will have my share of it. I have full faith that I will.
Is there something you would like to say to the people of Goa?
Yes, I love the Goan people, and I would like to tell them that they are the only ones that have the power to clean up all this mess and bring Goa to its natural state of harmony, as well as cleanliness and courtesy towards the foreigner.
I have many friends here, and I would like to come back in the future with the rest of my family; Inshallah!
