Faith keeps mother strong

By Nefertiti Matatia 15 February 2018, 12:00AM

Sixty-eight-year-old Sa Ga Sakaria from Satapuala has gone through a lot in life.

A mother of nine, she has had to endure the loss of six of them due to illnesses and still birth.

She has also had to endure an operation where one of her legs was amputated.

And with Tropical Cyclone Gita sweeping through Samoa last weekend, she held on to one thing that has kept her going in life - faith.

Mrs. Sakaria shared with the Village Voice team that she told her children and husband to evacuate immediately and leave her behind because she believed God would protect her. 

“I believe that God will never forsake his people,” she said.  “Everything is well in my family and death is present everywhere, whether it is good or bad death is there. As an elderly who has seen so much in life, that is what I believe in. 

“If this is God’s will, then we have to accept what has happened, I cannot do much because I have undergone an operation having my leg amputated because of diabetes.

“We were not prepared either and the wind came together with the rain. The only problem was that rain was able to enter the house.”

She said she was aware of the cyclone and luckily her house wasn’t flooded, but it was just the trees that were taken down.

Mrs. Sakaria is thankful that the cyclone did not do much damage because there was only one person who worked in their family and paying for repairs would cost them money.

“My son works and he has a family of his won, his wife and his six children live with us. One thing that I have learnt is that if people do not work hard, then they will not be able to earn anything in life.

“My daughter has her own family and my other son is unemployed and he is looking for a job to help our family. 

“I will not hide my worst and show my best because this is a sin in front of God, we need help,” she added.

She shared that her son is a carpenter and he earns $300 per week and the money caters for his six children who all attend school, their commitments to the village, church and extended family.

 “We do not have a plantation anymore. Our old plantation used to be where the new hospital is being constructed. We had so many yams, taros, bananas and they were all removed. That is the reason we got into a clash with the Government as well. If we took our harvest from that plantation of ours to sell, that could have been a lot of money.

“We could not go to our plantation the policemen did not allow anyone to enter. We were chased away. This was in 2012. Every time we did not have any money we would sell our crops to help my son.”

Life maybe hard, but Mrs. Sakaria says she is positive that her children and grandchildren will help build a stable future for their family.

By Nefertiti Matatia 15 February 2018, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

Upgrade to Premium

Subscribe to
Samoa Observer Online

Enjoy unlimited access to all our articles on any device + free trial to e-Edition. You can cancel anytime.

>