The Moonstone painting

Dr. Memie Kwok kindly gifted us the Moonstone painting that she completed in Fawzia's memory. On a recent trip to Hong Kong, Roy took it back with him, and the painting will hang in the Maryland home where Shannon, baby Nelum and Roy live.


Our family is grateful to Memie for the painting. We'll cherish it for the rest of our lives.

With my dad and Beaula in Hong Kong

In 2006, my dad paid a visit to Hong Kong. Beaula also came from the States. 

In Sai Kung. My friends David and Jennifer Johns are also in the photo.

With Beaula at HK airport.

Birthdays

These two photos were taken on August 6, 2001, when my sister Beaula gave Fawzia a surprise birthday party at Dairyton Ct. Sandra Sourjah is also in the photo. Fawzia lost her hair after chemotherapy, and, when it grew back, it was a lovely silver.






















At another birthday, with Sandra.

With Nelum

Note from Theresa Connors to Fawzia

Dear Fawzia,

It will be so hard to say goodbye! During the past 4 years you have been my friend and esteemed colleague.

Although we come from the “far corners” geographically, we seem so close in our hopes, dreams, and ideals. We are truly sisters.

We have seen so many things together: the Cossatott River and our haunted ride home, Mt. Nebo and Petit Jean, Scenic 7 and many miles of Interstate. That strange Thanksgiving at my folks’ house, and my parents’ 50^th Anniversary. It has been such a comfort to know you were so near!

I hope we can continue to be close/ though so far apart. I look forward o future ALA conferences so we can see more of the world together.

There will always be a welcome place for you and your family … in my home and in my heart.

Best wishes,

Tess

Tess wrote this when Fawzia was leaving Arkansas for Hong Kong. Fawzia kept the note for more than 10 years.

From Gabrielle Soumah in California

Remembering Aunty

I remember aunty as a very generous woman and always welcoming to poor international students in Arkansas.  I know her  kindness made our stay at UCA (University of Central Arkansas) and she made your house feel like a home away from home.  I pray for you and your dad often, that you come to a good place after, where only the good memories of her live on.

I know aunty is in a better place, and is not in pain.  Until the day we meet again, I know her memory and the things that mattered to her will always live in our heart.  She is dearly missed by all of us.

                      

From Theresa Connors in Arkansas

Fawzia and I enjoying Mt. Nebo, a favorite place to view the summer
sunsets.(6/1996)

What do I remember most about Fawzia? Her smile of course, but also the way she made a song out of my name. Somehow this song represented me, and I will miss hearing her song.

I met Fawzia in Mobile, Alabama. She was going to be our new reference
librarian. I was the technical services librarian and didn't leave my office
very often as that was where my work was. I did meet Fawzia, and we were
quickly great friends. I later met George and it seemed like that summer was a “Merchant- Ivory summer”. We all enjoyed the films and discussing the films and the books the films were based on.

However, I was moving on to a job in Arkansas. Imagine my delight when a
short time later, Fawzia accepted a job in Arkansas as well. It was about 40
miles from my house, so we often toured the state, enjoying the beautiful
Ozark and Ouachita Mountains, or shopping trips to Little Rock. We went to
movies when possible. It was so nice to have her near, even as our jobs
seemed to give us less time and energy to do fun things.

Fawzia met all my immediate family when she went with me to my parent's 50^th anniversary in Bossier City, Louisiana. She never met a stranger, and soon fit right in with the crowd (I have 3 brothers and a sister). One of the
pictures shows Fawzia at the stove working away.

This past summer, Fawzia and Roy spent the weekend with me. It felt so great to see her again - but also as if no time had lapsed as our friendship was still so strong. Had I known that I would not see her again, would we have just sat at my home and talked for those hours? And the answer would have to be no, as seeing the sights has always been part of our friendship. As was shopping and eating out.

Fawzia was far too young to leave this life, I miss her and looking back
through my decades of photos has revived memories of time spent with the
best of friends. This Arabian Proverb describes her so well because she always remembered the best about her friend in Arkansas:

"A friend is one to whom one may pour out all the contents of one's heart,
chaff and grain together, knowing that the gentlest of hands will take and
sift it, keep what is worth keeping and with a breath of kindness blow the
rest away."

Fawzia at my parent's 50th anniversary (11/1995)

Fawzia with my sister, Connie, at home in my folks' kitchen, always ready
to help out (11/1995)

Here we all are in my Russellville apartment. I have this dated for
1995 before George moved to Hong Kong.

One of our many trips to the brewery at Kelts, in Altus, Arkansas - wine
county is here (5/1996)

With Roy

At Galewela, on the way to Dambulla, Sri Lanka. Early 2000s. Fawzia had much faith in St. Jude and would always stop by this statue to make a donation.

Roy's graduation from the University of Central Arkansas, Conway.

Rare snowfall in Mobile, AL. This would be around 1991.

At our small apartment in graduate student housing, University of Texas at Austin, perhaps in 1988.

At the University of Texas at Austin, August 1987, freshly arrived in the USA.

August, 1988, at Niagara Falls. We drove all the way from Austin, Texas.

Christmas, 1987, at Austin, Texas.

In Oman, 1983.

In Oman, 1983, with the first TV we owned.

At Fawzia's graduation. BA, University of Kelaniya, in Sri Lanka.

At the orchid house in Peradeniya Gardens, Kandy, in 1982.

The following photos were taken at Pondside in 1982.

The photo below was taken at our home in Hong Kong, Clover Lodge, in 2005. Roy stopped in Hong Kong and we traveled together to Sri Lanka.

The two photos at the bottom were taken in Sri Lanka in 2009, when Roy visited again.

At Unawatuna Beach, 2009.

In Oman, 1984-87

 I went to the Sultanate of Oman in 1981 to teach English. Fawzia and Roy joined me in 1982. A year later, Fawzia, too, began to teach English there.

In 1984, I left for the United States for higher studies. Fawzia had to stay back in Oman because we couldn't support my parents and Roy's schooling back in Sri Lanka on my scholarship. In Oman, female teachers who did not live with their husbands had to enter a teachers' hostel. Fawzia stayed at a hostel from August 1984 till 1987. The other teachers were mainly from Egypt, Jordan, the Sudan, and Sri Lanka. To go from a home with me and Roy to sharing a crowded hostel would not have been easy. My friend Sarath Jayawardena (since deceased) and Fawzia's brother Hamlin paid her regular visits.

The only person I recognize from these photos is Swarna Samaraweera, who went to Oman with me in 1981 in the first batch of English teachers from Sri Lanka. After I left for the States, Fawzia shared a room in the teachers' hostel with Swarna. I belive they cooked together. Swarna, who now lives in Colombo, called me after reading Fawzia's obituary.

Before I left for the USA, we had a home in Al Khadra on the Muscat - Sohar highway. This photo shows friends from Oman Aviation visiting us in December, 1982. Our friend Emil Fernando, who went to Oman with me in 1981, is in the photo. 



January 1983, at Al Kadra.



English teachers Lalitha, Swarna, & Fareeda at our Al Khadra home. February, 1983. Fawzia hadn't begun to teach yet.