My friend Fiona Stevenson was born in Harlow but brought up in South Africa under apartheid and because of that and a difficult childhood escaped to the UK as soon as she could. She said people often forget that the apartheid regime did not only discriminate against black people - it discriminated against anyone who was not Afrikaans. She was forced to learn Afrikaans; it was drummed into her so hard that she could remember it even after she forgot much of the Spanish she learned later.
After working in London, she went to Essex University, and afterwards became a TEFL teacher. She spent several years travelling around teaching English, including in Mexico City, Athens and Izmir in Turkey. She lost most of the sight in one eye after being mugged in Athens. She then went to London, where she shared dismal digs in Islington with Anna, who became her most long-standing friend. This was at the time when the Tories had passed legislation opposing gays and lesbians like Fiona. She had mental health issues related to the abuse she had suffered and became homeless, being rescued by Anna, who had by then moved to Norwich. Anna later moved to Birmingham, and Fiona also moved there, with both of them living in Torch Housing Co-op where I lived, although they lived there at different times.
Looking for TEFL work in Birmingham, Fiona got a job at Birmingham Prison, Winson Green, where many of the inmates had English as a second language. Several prison officers told her that she would make a good probation officer, and eventually she was persuaded to take the course and get a job as a probation officer in Birmingham. She moved out of the co-op and bought a flat on the edge of the city, backing onto a large country park, where she lived for many years with her cats, who were the four-legged members of her family.
When Fiona talked about “her boys”, you had to listen carefully to work out if she was referring to her male cats or the offenders she supervised. Fiona was proud of her “boys” when they improved their lives, even in small ways.
At the time of her death she was still a probation officer in Birmingham, having worked there for 18 years, and when she died I got so many calls from staff that the head of probation for Birmingham asked them to stop contacting me. To go from someone who was the victim of abuse to someone who worked regularly with sex offenders took a lot of courage.
Fiona was appalled by the part-privatisation of probation services. Not only did she predict that it would fail, but also in detail how it would fail, based on her own experience of working with offenders. She herself was fortunate enough to remain within the non-privatised part and was therefore spared the worst of the turmoil of privatisation and its failure.
Fiona had many health problems over the years, of which the most painful was severe osteoporosis. In 2020 I was shocked to hear that she now had cancer as well. Not only that, but her best friend had cancer too, and they ended up in the same hospital. While in hospital being treated for cancer, Fiona caught coronavirus. The first I heard of this was when the oncologist phoned me on Christmas Day while I was making dinner. Sadly, with all her other health problems, Fiona was not able to fight the virus off, and she died on 8th January.
Fiona will be remembered for her kindness and brilliant sense of humour. She was passionately fond of animals and was very upset at stories of animal abuse. She had a down-to-earth approach and was not afraid to speak her mind. Those who knew her will never forget her character, perseverance, commitment, sense of justice and quirky humour.
Stuart
25th January 2021
