She will greet you with a smile and offer to show you mattresses and pillows, covers and bedsheets and more, all on sale along Raojibhai Patel St in Suva.
It not usual, but she is simply doing her job as a saleswoman.
Behind those smiles lie a great deal of experience not a saleswoman but as a mother and grandmother to 20 grandchildren.
In fact at her age she is supposed to be retired but her circumstances require to keep working for her family.
The 64-year-old shows no sign of slowing down and shared another side to her life story. She was named after her father Alipate Sani.
“My first name is a male’s name because I was named after my dad. I was just born around the same time he left to work on Makogai Island, a place in Lomaiviti used to house lepers during the Colonial Government of Fiji.
“I’m from Ketei, Totoya in Lau and in 1957 I was named after my father to commemorate his travel to Makogai,” she added.
Ms Sani has five children and 20 grandchildren. She is a saleswoman at Suva’s famous Tak Wah Store.
She said she started work at the age of 18 because she was one of those girls that was not meant to stay home.
“I couldn’t staying at home doing nothing, so I went out to find work and my first pay gave me a good feeling,” she said.
Ms Sani said she worked for about 20 years as a waitress and kitchen-hand at Kim’s Cafe.
“That cafeteria was next to the Suva market and well-known at that time. When the owner migrated to Australia he closed his business. I moved on to Joe Wong cafeteria on Marks St and spent nine years there,” she added.
She then tried out something new, working as a salesgirl at a Chinese shop that sold beddings, materials, household items and much more.
Ms Sani works from Monday to Saturday between 8.30am and 4.30pm.
“I usual finish work by 4pm on Saturday,” she said.
Ms Sani said age did not matter and she believes that if one works hard and enjoyed their work — one would enjoy life.
“That’s important for me at the end of the day. I enjoy my job and stay positive all the time,” she says.
Ms Sani said that as long as she had good health, she would continue working.
“My children have all married and are independent, so I’m just working to support my husband and some of my grandchildren,” she said.
