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My Mother Naomi Tuikoro who hails from Namata;Bau in Tailevu.
My Father had eloped with her and eventually married her.
One year later I was born.She was 19 years old when I was born while my Father was 18.All was good until my Father started drinking alcohol with his friends...
My Father had eloped with her and eventually married her.
One year later I was born.She was 19 years old when I was born while my Father was 18.All was good until my Father started drinking alcohol with his friends...
...and started wasting the little he already earned from being a casual delivery boy for a Rakiraki based delivery company called M Abdul & Company.The alcohol drinking eventually led to physical abuse which I personally witnessed as a young boy.
My Mother would be in and out....
My Mother would be in and out....
...of Rakiraki Hospital for sustaining injuries due to the physical abuse.Immediately after she would return home to look after me.She never;not even once left our home in Rakiraki to go back to her family back in Tailevu even though I had often begged her many a times.
It reached a point when my Father would not allow us to attend the local AOG church on Sundays because he didn't like the idea of us going to the very denomination to which my Mother had been baptised in as a young teenager.After coming back from church she would be kicked...
...and punched in broad daylight in front of me simply for going to church.When my uncles and aunts would try to interfere they would also get injured.
My Mother would always tell me that we should never give up and to always pray for my Father and to ask God to forgive him.
My Mother would always tell me that we should never give up and to always pray for my Father and to ask God to forgive him.
Because my Father was always drinking with his friends there was hardly any money left to to be brought home so my Mother and I would catch fish in small streams close to home.
In fact I literally learned how to swim in those very same muddy and dirty streams that flow beside....
In fact I literally learned how to swim in those very same muddy and dirty streams that flow beside....
...the Ra Sports Ground Complex in Rakiraki.She went around our neighbourhood with me in tow washing clothes and also babysitting for our Indo Fijian neighbours to get extra money to help put food on the table and also to buy school uniform and stationeries.
By this time I had two more brothers born and a sister later but I was the only one who was scarred by the abuse that my Mother had to endure.
One day my Father while drunk with his friends in a car were involved in an accident and he nearly lost his life.
One day my Father while drunk with his friends in a car were involved in an accident and he nearly lost his life.
Due to this life changing event in his life my Father stopped drinking and started attending church with us.He over the years together with my Mother faithfully served God with all their hearts.He eventually became a worship Pastor for the local AOG church.
A few decades later we moved to the ANCF denomination in which they both served for so many years.
My Father passed away in 2016 but of course he had many a times asked me to forgive him for what happened in my early days.I told him that I had forgiven him long ago.
If my ...
My Father passed away in 2016 but of course he had many a times asked me to forgive him for what happened in my early days.I told him that I had forgiven him long ago.
If my ...
...my Mother had the heart to forgive him than I also had to find in my heart the ability to forgive him.
My Mother now lives alone at home in Nadovi Rakiraki.She is the proud Mother to 3 sons who are all school teachers and a daughter who has a family of her own.
My Mother now lives alone at home in Nadovi Rakiraki.She is the proud Mother to 3 sons who are all school teachers and a daughter who has a family of her own.
We thank God for giving us a Mother who had the strength and the heart to go through the challenges that she had to endure and never gave up.We also thank her for her dedication;determination and courage to raise us up despite all the difficulties she had to face.
We will always love you Mother
