Vasiti Donu’s effort to protect her seven great-grandchildren during the onslaught of Tropical Cyclone Winston last year claimed her life.

Eseta Tinaikai, left her grandmother with her children that fateful day to attend a funeral gathering at Rukurukulevu in Nadroga.

Little did she know that this was the last time she would see her.

On Saturday night Ms Tinaikai made several calls to her children asking about the situation at their Vatusekiyasawa Village home in Ra.

Her eldest daughter informed her that their little house of tin and wood was now upside down and they were standing on the roof.

“My daughter told me that my grandmother had been badly injured and she was now lying down as a beam had hit her on the shoulders,” she said.

And one of my daughters who was cut by the iron-roof was also down bleeding.”

Her children cuddled together to keep warm until day-break.

“My grandmother had to be buried by the villagers because it was hard to take her body to hospital.”