“I’ve been blessed with such wonderful family,” says 91-year-old Lagi

28 December 2018, 12:00AM

Lagi Maulu Meafua Fa’i is one of the elites and among the people who believe in living life to the fullest.

At 91-years of age, the great grandmother continues to cheat death with her doctors placing her children, grand children and great grant kids again on vigil earlier this year to prepare for her eternal entry when her health deteriorated.

But on Christmas Day, Lagi was dancing away at her home in New Plymouth rejoicing in her miraculous recovery.

It was her way of thanksgiving to the Almighty.  She is even more grateful with the arrival of two of her daughters and grandchildren from Sydney Australia to join her children in New Plymouth to celebrate the birth of Christ and the coming of the new year.

She is fortunate, says the Fagaloa and Taufusi native born to live a long, adventurous life. 

She wasn’t embarrassed to be an amateur, afraid to make mistakes along the way, or even frighten when most reasonable people might be. 

She lives a simple life.

 It doesn’t take much to make her happy—a phone call, a card, a visit or a kiss before saying good night from any of her loved ones. 

They are the most important people in the world to her. She lived to make their lives better and remains proud of all her children, grand children and great grandchildren.

She devoted her entire life to giving all her children and their children and great grand kids family values that remain important to her and late husband, Fa’i Maulu Meafua Fa’i. 

And they may have been poor in material things but so very rich in many other ways based on her and Maulu’s resolve that the family is the heart and soul of everyone and if that is right, then all will be well.

The mother of eight children, Lagi and her late husband Maulu were uprooted from Apia by her eldest son Fa’i Falaniko and wife Su’e over a decade ago to retire in New Plymouth.

And she admits that life since with the blessings of her Father in Heaven have been good to her. 

It was not by design but by fate for the family to move to New Plymouth where their strength and will power to remain as a family is further strengthen.  

And it has given the Great Grandmother all the more reason to re-cement her Catholic beliefs complemented by her upbringing to fear the Almighty which she says continues to play a leading role in the blessings that she and her family have received.

“We have been blessed and with the Lord and the Almighty on our side, my family will prosper,” says Lagi. Reminisced Lagi as she finishes her first glass of red wine to celebrate and commemorate Christmas with her huge family: “A family is a circle of strength of love and with every new addition; the family circle grows and becomes stronger.

“I am just an ordinary person who has been blessed with such a wonderful family. I love the way they all spoil me and I wish I could have given you more when you they were children. I gave them what I could and a stable family home to grow up in. Now it is their turn to provide those things to their children, my grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and let them enrich their lifes as they have enriched mine.”

28 December 2018, 12:00AM

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