Grieving father describes pain of losing son

It has never been easy.

These were the words of grieving father, Sema Radrodro, who lost his son to an incident at the Suva Harbour on Monday last week.

Alifereti Radrodro, 28, was swept away by currents while trying to retrieve a drifting dinghy from the Lomaiviti Princess 8 vessel.

His attempts to reach the boat were unsuccessful, and he was swept by the waves. He was an employee of Goundar Shipping Limited.

Police confirmed that his attempts to recover the dingy was unsuccessful when he was swept away by strong waves. Police called off the search Saturday with Mr Radrodro’s body yet to be retrieved.

Speaking to the Fiji Sun from Serea Village in Naitasiri yesterday, Alifereti’s father described his son as a kind and loving young man. He was the eldest of nine siblings.

“He had always wanted to become an engineer in the shipping industry and he worked hard towards achieving that dream,” an emotional Mr Radrodro said.

“It has never been easy since we received the news. I was at a funeral gathering last Monday when I was told the news. He was my eldest and we had so much planned out for him. Before the incident, he called his mother and they spoke at length. She never knew that was the last time they would converse.”

He hoped his son’s body would be found.

“Some of his cousins had taken the initiative to go out on a search party again yesterday. I hope that his body will be found so that we could farewell him properly. It’s hard accepting the fact that he is no more.”

He said the family has planned to hold a memorial for his son on Friday.

“We hope we would be able to find his body before that. He was a man of relationships, he knew everyone and was in good relationship with everyone. He had a good heart and was always willing to talk and spend time with people.”

Attempts to get comments from Goundar Shipping Ltd were unsuccessful when this edition went to print.

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