It was one of the hardest decisions of his life.
Samuela Naqari knew he could not carry his 98-year-old mother through the ferocious winds of Tropical Cyclone Winston, which had already torn roofs from homes and sent waves crashing into Nayavutoka Village in Nakorotubu, Ra.
“By 6pm, our roof was gone,” he shared.
“We decided to move my mother and the children to the room and put them under the beds.
Their home was near the seawall and he recalled how they started making plans to move when the wind picked up.
“I wanted to bring her with us, but she was too frail.
“So, we covered her with a mattress and our mats. And we tried to move.
“It is one of the hardest things I’ve had to do in my entire life.”
He grabbed one of his granddaughters while his wife took the other, and together they made for one of his cousin’s houses on a hill.
Outside, the storm was terrifying.
“I hid behind a tree with my granddaughter who was only in her diaper. The rain was so heavy I could not see my own hand. I did not even know my son was just a few metres from me hiding behind a tree too.”
By morning, the full horror was revealed.
“The huge waves brought in by TC Winston took away the remaining parts of my home and my mother with it.
“She drowned. The waves came in with trees and soil and pieces of houses. It all covered the place we had kept her.”
Hours later, villagers gathered to bury her.
“We could not call for help or move her to a hospital. We were still in our wet clothes when we wrapped her in a mat and buried her.”
A decade on, the trauma lingers.
“It is still difficult for us to think about. It was a time when we all thought, ‘it is our time to go’.”
