My brother Manitete Mulipola

My brother Manitete Mulipola

My brother was unique in his own ways. He was kind of a loner and spent most of his adult life by himself and hang out more with his friends than with families. He loved his drinks and was the main reason why he avoided families.

He was born and raised in the church (LDS) in Western Samoa by our parents with all of us, but later migrated to Auckland, New Zealand in the late 1980s. Mom and dad wrote and asked that we bring him to New Zealand to get him away from Samoa and for a better future for him. We brought him, but he would not settle or stay put with us. He was a person who would just go when and where he wants to go. He basically lived with all of our siblings and their families here in NZ, then he moved on to some of our cousins until he decided to follow some of the cousins to Australia where he spent the rest of his life. He would occasionally visit our sisters living in Sydney, but was more comfortable with his drinking mates. However, towards his late life, he took sick and my sisters Oketi and Daisy who reside in Sydney checked him into hospital and from there he was checked into a home where he lived until he died, and is buried in Sydney. He never returned home since he left.

Its funny in life how you don't see the goodness in people until they are gone. He is the first of us sibling to have passed on, and though we did not always see things in the same light or cared much about his life style, in the end he was still our brother and we still cared and loved him. I did not attend his funeral, but my sisters were all there, and we all contributed to help. I think about him now and wondered if he is happy where he is. He was quite content on his own in this life and hope that he is at peace and happy. He was a special spirit in his own ways that we found difficult to understand.

The last time I saw him was in Dec. 2012 while he was in hospital and I was visiting with my sisters. We all went to visit with him. I still remember him sitting in his wheelchair waving and looking out when I left. Ah, the memories how they linger and can hurt!