Fiona was my big cousin, her dad John McDougall was my mum (Jenny)’s brother. She was always someone I looked up to because she was so tall, slim, beautiful and fashionable and when I was still a wee girl she was wearing make-up, high heels and short skirts, and she was in to pop music, dancing and going out on dates. (Even in those days Fiona was what we would call a ‘looker’ and what a ‘looker’!!)With a name like Fiona McDougall/Scott she obviously had Scottish blood in her veins: she was always very proud of her Scottish roots and possibly even more so after she moved to the USA, so she made sure she kept in touch with us all. Never a Christmas went by but we got a letter in with our Christmas card telling us what she was doing and how Doug and her three boys were getting on. She was extremely proud of the family she had created for herself and it was obvious to us all that they mattered more to her than anything else in the world.She made trips home with and without Doug and her boys to see her dad and the rest of the family as well as to play as many games of golf as could be fitted in for the men. Each time she came over she made time to visit every member of the family and always brought her camera to record all her visits. Everybody got a copy of each get-together and I have photos going back years of us all together, with Fiona usually sitting proudly right in the middle.I remember her first visit after her husband Doug died, and we were watching TV when somebody in the programme remarried. She turned to me and said “when you’ve been married to the top guy in the world you would never remarry as everybody else would be second best”. That summed up for me her idolisation of Doug.A few years ago she brought Lori over to introduce her to all of the Scottish contingent and let her visit Glasgow and Fiona’s old haunts. They stayed with me and I remember Fiona coming down in to the kitchen on the first morning in her nightie, no make-up, hair tousled and totally jet lagged to ask what day it was and what time it was – and she still looked beautiful!!Latterly technology brought email contact and Fiona embraced this wholeheartedly as it enabled her to keep in touch with family and friends whom she couldn’t see on a regular basis – like me for instance! And this is where I learned a whole new side to Fiona as we were in touch most weeks sometimes 2 or 3 times a week. I always knew she had a great sense of humour but some of the jokes she sent across the pond were hysterical and totally non PC!!She told me about her cancer and her muscle wasting disease, and how she had googled it and been shocked to read how it would progress and what kind of end it might bring her. When I told her perhaps she should have stopped reading before the last paragraph she agreed but explained “forewarned is forearmed and I’ll just need to be brave”.She also decided she didn’t want her sons or daughters-in-law to be clearing out all her drawers so she started doing it, but hadn’t got very far when she began to lose all her energy and found it hard going. However she emailed me to tell me she had done the knicker drawer first so that gave her a huge sense of relief!!I’ll miss her funny emails, her short messages and her longer ones, her phone calls and the fact she never managed to bring Bennett over to show him round Scotland and Glasgow, and let him meet the family and friends she had over here.How will I remember her? Tall, slim, elegant, beautiful, humorous, brave, caring, optimistic, contented, patient – she had so many positive qualities, I’ll always look up to her just as I did as a wee 6 year old.
