Fiona Mary Anne Moore
‘’Nona’’
A good life very well lived’
Gin share price has plummeted
Born 24/10/1966 Bromsgrove (don’t call her a brummie she has spent most of her life in Scotland)
Fiona was an absolutely fearless and natural rider a gifted and gracious skier and sportsman.
Having a happy country childhood being especially fond of her little
brother. She went to the local primary school about 2 miles away. Aged
about nine she asked if she could ride, across the main road, to school.
Her beloved pony Woody spent the day in a local farmers calf pen with plenty
of hay and Fiona shed her trousers to appear at school in a skirt. It
was here that she had a brush with the law for jumping the pony over a
hedge into the road.
She hunted with great ability and courage and in later years on full
sized horses, competed for the pony club in their National Championships.
This involved dressage, show jumping and cross country.
One day the Smith came when her parents were out, and Woody had his shoes
off. Graham and Fiona coaxed the pony up a curved staircase at the 0ld
Vicarage to let Woody see his rosettes on her bedroom wall. He was not
SO easy to go back down.
One legendary family story comes from a country show in a little Welsh town called Llangurig. At the end of the day all the cars that had been outside the main ring drove into the middle, creating a half mile flat racetrack around the outside. Fiona and Woody excitedly entered. The little girl with blond pigtails looked so unpromising that they gave her a 50-foot head start. She won the race by a country mile. The next race was an even start against larger ponies. She won that too. Finally, it came to the open against full sized horses. You guessed it, Fiona and Woody won that as well.
She then went to a small public school as a boarder, Bedstone. She got
lonely and Woody came to stay at the school. She was very athletic and
was asked to train to throw javelin for Shropshire juniors. She ran for
the Midlands two years running. She trained for and passed the British
Horse Society's instructors exam.
She was in the national championships showjumping and dressage competition for two years achieving clear rounds.
Leaving school she trained in cordon bleu and cooked a bit locally before getting herself to America to teach riding and pony management to rich American girls at camp America---- Fiona taught them to ride properly, children of all ages always loved Fiona and she was very popular there.
She then became a chalet girl and completed her first season in the Alps. Fiona skied well enough to be asked by a French ski instructor to be his partner in the famous Three Valleys race. Sadly her boss said he could not spare her from work.
Returned to UK and the at end of summer season and headed to Blackpool to attend Red guide (ski company)training week before starting another season in the Alps was staying at the ‘’Seymore Hotel’’ in Blackpool where she met the love of her life Jeremy who did want to see more!!!!! They instantly fell in love so much so at the end of the course Jeremy was heading to Bath to see family and she insisted on him coming for lunch at the Old vicarage. Honest Ma wont mind. Well, I’m sure she wouldn’t have if she’d told her – another gentle chastise.
They met again on the way back up the road to Scotland and Jeremy stayed overnight and the relationship just grew and grew. In those days you had to walk to the phone box and when the 10ps ran out it was heart ache. Sometimes you could get a lolly stick in to imitate 10p .
Initially they both went out to work in France together but Jeremy’s employment with red guide ended there and he left to work with another company in Austria in St Anton.
Not deterred the relationship continued and in the middle of the season an opportunity arose for Jeremy to work in Courchevel for the week as a rep had broken his leg. He jumped at the chance and arrived in resort to discover a rep had been sent out from England. Heartbroken he thought that he would be sent back. However the boss took sympathy on him and giving him accommodation and a lift pass. Fiona finished what she was doing and off they went skiing managing some twenty minutes before a rather rotund French lady skied over Jeremys head severing part of his large left lug and rendering him unconscious. He woke up in hospital and learned what had happened including that the said rotund woman had broken her leg on his head and was blaming him, thankfully it was witnessed by Fiona and a French ski instructor who told the pisteurs. Jeremy was released from hospital with the promise that Fiona would care for him and that she was to wake him every two hours to check his responses --- he woke her next morning!!!!!
So began 36 years of love friendship compassion and adventure she lived a life craved by most. They finished the ski season and Jeremy so remembers her coming to Scotland to join him. He had obtained a live in caravan and equipped it from the Barras. She arrived from Shropshire in ‘’Custard’’ her little yellow mini clubman loaded to the gunnels for every eventuality. So began their life together and initially worked for a couple of seasons on Loch Lomond on passenger boats for his brother Fred and Uncle Stuart.
Tragedy struck at this point when she lost her wee brother James, she always carried his picture in her purse and had his picture on her bed side table her stoicism and fortitude during this difficult time carried and supported the whole family.
Not long after this Jeremy realised what a remarkable woman this was and despite being warned about marriage realised this was the one for him, he took her out in a wee sailing dinghy on a rare sunny day on Loch Lomond and near to honeymoon island got down on one knee and proposed to her, he only had a coke can ring at that point but it didn’t matter she immediately said yes with tears of joy flowing down her face hugging him and laughing . This rapidly turned to disgust as he tacked the dinghy and the stays weren’t tight enough, the mast fell and capsized the dinghy putting them both in the water
Fiona soon obtained her boat masters certificate proving her horsemanship skills were akin to her seamanship skills.
 
In 1990 they were married in Ashford Carbonell St Mary Magdalene church, she said - if we get married in England I will have your children in Scotland.
They honeymooned in Taos in New Mexico & drove across the desert in a wee rental car in a blizzard to get there. When they came to the road closure at the other end the trooper was incredulous that they had driven all that way without a 4wd. Fiona was driving and pointed out that if she could drive in Glencoe then flat land was easy.
They had then brought their first wee flat in Arrochar, Fiona was so proud of it and between them gutted it making their first proper home. Work on the boats continued and Jeremy went back to sea at this point working month on month off for the next adventure which was branching out with their own wee passenger boat and 6 dinghys on the Caledonian canal. After one year British waterways were so impressed by their progress they doubled the rent. So they left.
The next adventure was a fishing boat on the west of Scotland. Bare in mind Fiona was born in middle England and not from a seafaring background and all of sudden she finds herself on the back off a creel boat in the inhospitable waters to the south of Mull fishing for prawns and like everything she did she just got on with it and excelled at it. Her amazing balance and cast-iron stomach never her let her down.
On the 12th of July 1994 that all came to an end when their son Fergus was born and she was so happy being a mummy. At this point they needed somewhere to live and an opportunity arose to move to the Island of Shuna by Craobh – population 4 and they were three of it. No ferry no mains electricity and a sporadic water supply but oh luxury they had a landline telephone!!!!!! So they moved there with a four month old baby. Fiona took it all in her stride describing it to be a wonderful time devoting everything to being a mummy and loving it. Every day rain or shine the dogs and Fergus where out and about on all her wee haunts on the island. So Fergus was not left out she would get into a wee boat once a week and go to the neighbouring Island of Luing moor in Ardinamer get baby dogs and buggy  in a dinghy and walk to Cullipool or Toberonochy to playgroup. Even a shopping trip was not straightforward with Fergus being blown off the pier in his buggy and ending up in the sea. Thankfully a happy ending but very few woman would have the courage and strength to deal with frights like that.
Time moves on and schooling became an issue so decisions were made to move to the mainland and they brought the house they are still in now at Barcaldine. A small close knit community with an ideal wee school within walking distance. Jeremy was despatched back to sea briefly before joining the police and Fiona then decided to start her own business as a child minder whilst supporting her husband in his latest career like she always did. She was so far ahead of her time that even now there are organisations coming out with brilliant ideas that Fiona was doing 26 Years ago. It started off in the lounge then she decided she needed a bigger room so with very little or no money they brought a kit form conservatory and built it together, 20 years later it was still her ‘’office where she worked on a daily basis.
 
It is not possible to state how many children Fiona looked after over the years it is thought to be well over a hundred, she didn’t just look after them she prepared them for school and indeed life, most had their three Rs when they went to primary school (Reading- wRiting -aRithmetic ) and in truth they all became part of the family.
The children in some cases would spend as much time with Fiona than their own parents who were wrestling with the pressures of modern-day life and professional careers. Indeed, some of the children’s first words were in a very cultured bespoke English accent to the horror of some Scottish parents!!!!! The children had a unique language from her talking about ‘’tootie- fruitie’’ time (fresh fruit and juicing in the morning) ‘’Golly -gosh’’ screamed over cattle grids so you jumped through the roof ‘’nickie – noos’’ – underwear. Bottom burps – flatulence !!!! ‘’Lickie saurous’’ – dog licks, dog walks where bear hunts !!! Child falls were caused by goblins -----the dogs where always her tools of her trade especially with children who had communication difficulties, she always used the dogs to communicate and it was very common to find a child curled up in the dog bed.
This time of the year she would harvest frog spawn and put it in a fish tank and document the life cycle of the frog with the children going to tadpole , then tadpole with 2 legs then four legs culminating in the great day when they were froglets being released. One year she got it wrong & went away for the weekend and then came home to find baby frogs hopping over the table in the conservatory having climbed out of the tank!!!!!!!
Fiona’s priorities were always clear the children came first then the dogs then her boys i.e. Fergus and Jeremy in that order.
Travel food and adventure was a huge part of her life she always looked forward to the next adventure sharing adventures recently in Argentina, Chile, the Falklands , Africa , Canada, America, Gambia and all over Europe and the med to name a few, she also had a huge love of Ireland, the Irish and has extended family there.
She missed her sea days so there was always a Rib or the yacht again with Fiona at the helm was sailed from the Butt of Lewis to southern Ireland and the Isle of Mann. She would think nothing of standing a watch on a nighttime passage to Belfast for a weekend out. An amazing seafarer and outstanding companion to be at sea with who had an acute awareness of the unique wildlife in our waters her squeals of delight when finding dolphins orcas and whales was infectious.
She was a real petrolhead and loved her cars. Her Porsche was slightly modified to suit her personality and driving style and made such a wonderful noise, with the roof down and her blond hair flowing in the wind with her two dogs behind her will be an iconic symbol no longer seen on the argyll roads. I used to love being on the south pier in Oban on Islander and watch her drive by. The looks on the general public’s face as this pretty blonde with her equally pretty dogs drove past, and she would always blip the throttle enough to make people look up. Good job one of her greatest admirers was a traffic cop who was always on her side even when Jeremy had grassed her up!!!!! Fiona’s nature was undoubtedly kind and generous, but it is her competitive nature balanced with a strong sense of fun and mischief that is responsible for many family stories.
What could be a better birthday present for Fiona than a day of rally school at knockhill and a timed race with the ten other men participating.  In four-wheel drive Cosworths it certainly had the fun factor! Some males took it so seriously they even had their own coveralls and driving shoes. It came as no surprise to any of the family that Fiona won, but the humour gene for the drivers from the Scottish police she was racing so successfully that day against was sadly lacking…
 
Fiona was a huge advocate of field sports and it was a huge part of her life she was always at ease with her shooting family. A shoot day would see her out of bed very early dogs would be attended to first then she would prepare for every eventuality, it was not unknown for her to have three shoot jackets in one day, her poor mother was only allowed one. She even had a first aid kit for the dogs never bothered with one for her husband, but the dogs had one. In latter years she had as much fun working the dogs as she did shooting and she couldn’t wait to get home to call her father to tell him what she had achieved that day or how good her dog was compared to her husband’s naughty dog.
 
Meringues.------Fiona was the undisputed world champion of meringues, uncontested nobody could even come close I have seen grown men drooling at her feet for one more she could make that light delicate exterior with a delicious chewy bit in the middle. It was her trademark and she could whip 50 up with a house full of children before going out that night.
Fiona leaves a void that is impossible to fill her legacy will be her son Fergus who she adored and all the other children that she was a second mother too and had such an influence and lasting impact on. They will pass on all they learned from her onto to their children and the world will be a better place for it. Jeremy is so grateful for all that they  shared and did together, so many happy and wonderful memories. He has lost his best friend. This incredible love story started in France and finished in France doing what she loved doing she quite simply skied directly into heaven leaving the world a much poorer place.