The past few days have seen a spate of deaths of friends, whom many in the Goanet family would have heard of, if not known personally.
AUTHOR AND NOVELIST MARGARET MASCARENHAS: On Sunday came news of the death of author, novelist, writer Margaret Mascarenhas. She had been fighting cancer for a short while, and is among Goa's best known writers nationally and internationally. Professor Peter Nazareth said from Iowa in a tribute: "I taught Margaret's *Skin* at least once a year and it was always a great favourite of the students, who did not find it difficult. Most of them chose to write about it, and I know that one of the essays was published in an electronic journal. Margaret had agreed to visit one of my classes after a conference on the East coast but she was not able to make it so she never got to Iowa. We corresponded frequently and I heard her interviews on the laptop so I feel I knew her. D.H. Lawrence had a famous injunction: Never trust the teller, trust the tale. What Margaret wrote were global novels in which Goans played a part that was sometimes overlooked." You can hear Margaret talk about her work, others talk about her work, or even catch her sing here: http://bit.ly/MargaretMascarenhas Check out an updated Wikipedia page here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Mascarenhas * * * * * * * * * BONAVENTURE D'PIETRO was getting ready to celebrate his 80th birthday, with the release of a rare autobiography (few Goan writers have managed this), when news came of his untimely death. He was known as the James Hadley Chase of Konkani writing. Here's more about him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtggvchdcRw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZcYZnK9SSc His autobiography was released on the day intended, last Sunday, and is called 'Vattliechea Avazan: Mhoji Jivit Kotha' (which might be translated as 'In the Shadow of the Gong: The Story of My Life'). * * * * * * * * * MIKE ALI, the husband of Gorreti (with roots in Margao), was an enthusiastic supporter of the Goa and community causes in Karachi. We've know each other over the years, with his background in writing and more. He recently wrote: "Our book, St. Patrick's, a Journey of 175 Years -- 225 pages, 340 photos most in colour and many rare ones -- is finally being launched on Dec. 2, 2018 by Joseph, Cardinal Coutts at St. Patrick's Cathedral, Karachi. I shall be mailing you a copy after Dec 2." And he always kept to his word. His departure was most untimely, as he had much much more to contribute. * * * * * * * * * Dr Rose Marie Ann Luise D'Silva (née de Sousa), 1937-2019, was the wife of scientist Dr Themistocles Da Silva, who has taken forward his deep interest in writing local histories of his home village of Arossim, near Cansaulim, at the coastal strip of Mormugao taluka. Rose Marie D'Silva was born in Karachi, when it was British India, and grew up in a close-knit Goan Catholic family and community. Her father Professor Leo Anthony de Sousa was a charismatic intellectual man, a physics professor and church organist, who became president of D.J. Sindh Govt. Science College. She was deeply affected by her mother's untimely death when she was only seven years old and the eldest of five children, and by the turbulent years after Partition, with the city's designation as the capital of Pakistan. She completed a Master's degree in Chemistry, and taught in college, always feeling responsible to her brothers and sisters. A friendship forged through her father’s leadership exchange visit to the US enabled her to live with a loving family during her graduate work at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Rose Marie completed a Ph.D. in organic chemistry, alongside her fellow graduate student in the same lab, Themistocles (Tim) D’Silva. She did post-doctoral research at the University of Rochester before they married in 1965, and began their family near Worcester, Mass. Later, she taught organic chemistry in evening classes at what was then Morris Harvey College. She was known as a tough but fair teacher, dedicated to making sure her students understood concepts. In 1981 the family moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Rose Marie joined the Duke University Chemistry Department. The D'Silvas have four children, Marisa D'Silva Whitesell (Chapel Hill), Karena D'Silva (NYC and Chapel Hill), Carl D'Silva (fiancée Joni Jacobsen, Chicago) and Marc D'Silva (wife Chinar, Cambodia), and five grandchildren, Blaise, Romy and Carmen Whitesell, and Caia and Eva D’Silva, as well as two brothers, Terence de Sousa (California) and Bernard de Sousa (England), two sisters, Margaret Van Milder (Virginia) and Joan Davies (England), and many nieces and nephews. A Mass of Christian Burial will be concelebrated by Fr. Bill Robinson, OFM Conv. and Rev. Msgr. John Wall, on Monday, July 1, 2019 at 1pm at the Newman Catholic Student Center Parish, 218 Pittsboro Street, Chapel Hill, NC. In lieu of flowers, please direct donations to Catholic Charities, 2050 Ballenger Ave Suite 400, Alexandria, VA 22314, www.catholiccharitiesusa.org, Catholic Relief Services, P..O. Box 17090, Baltimore, MD 21297-0303, www.crs.org, or to a charity of your choice. Goanet shares its condolences to the family and friends of all. --Frederick Noronha.