A loyal and committed President and founding Party member of the Fiji Labour Party was farewelled at the Wesley City Mission Church in Butt Street, yesterday.

Lavinia Kau Wainiqolo Padarath passed away on Sunday, last week, at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital after a short illness.

Politicians, dignitaries, Adi Cakobau School ex-students, retired nurses, families and friends filled the jam packed church to pay their final respects to a passionate woman of service.

Labour Leader Mahendra Chaudhry said Mrs Padarath was a caring and compassionate lady, who will be greatly missed by the Party and her colleagues.

“It will be difficult for the Party to fill the void Lavinia has left behind and we will greatly miss her,”

“She greatly believed in the power of prayer and faced her difficulties with an exemplary hierarchy of patience and perseverance,” Mr Chaudhry said.

Fiji Labour Party leader Mahendra Chaudhry while speaking at Party President Lavinia Padarath’s funeral service at Wesley City Mission Church on July 18, 2019. Photo: Ronald Kumar

Representative from the Retired Nurses Association, Rigieta Nadakuitavuki, acknowledged the life well lived by the politician and her contribution to the association.

“She never said farewell to most of us here but the legacy she has left behind served as a reminder of the life God had chosen and ordained her for, a purpose to follow God’s commandment and love,” Ms Nadakuitavuki said.

Mrs Padarath served as the Minister for Women, Culture and Social Welfare in the 1999/2000 Labour Government and served as a Senator in the Upper House in 2006.

She was then appointed FLP President in 2011, after the death of Jokapeci Koroi.

Mrs Padarath passed away a day before her 74th birthday.

Edited by Susana Tuilau

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