‘Why is Dad late?’ A five-year-old’s question after father’s death

A trip to buy butter for a family pie ended in tragedy for a 26-year-old father, leaving behind his wife and three young children.

Police officer Atonio Peni Nagata left home on Tuesday afternoon to buy butter from Navua Town so his wife could bake him a pie. He never returned home.

Mr Nagata died on Tuesday evening following a head-on collision with another vehicle along the Queens Highway while travelling towards Navua.

For his wife, Sereima Ditini Nakaira, the loss is still too painful to accept.

“Na yaloqu e sa kakavorovoro, isa na noqu vakamau e sa gole vakadua” (My heart is shattered; the love of my life has gone forever), she said.

Ms Nakaira recalled that after they returned from shopping on Tuesday evening, Mr Nagata told her he was craving a pie and asked her to bake one.

“The taste of your pie is different compared to others,” he told her.

Ms Nakaira began preparing the ingredients but soon realised there was not enough butter to make the pie.

Her husband reassured her that it was not a problem and offered to go to Navua Town to buy some.

“Kua ni leqa (Don’t worry), I’ll go look for some butter from Navua Town,” he told her.

It was a simple offer from a husband who wanted to help his wife prepare something he loved. But the trip ended in tragedy.

Ms Nakaira was later left with the news that her husband had died in a road accident.

The couple’s eldest son, five-year-old Atonio, who is named after his father, is still struggling to understand his father’s absence.

Yesterday morning, he asked his mother a question that captured the family’s grief.

“Na, cava sa berabera mai kina o Ta?” (Mum, why is Dad late?)

“For me, it is a question I cannot answer in a way my children can understand,” Ms Nakaira said.

The couple’s other two children are four-year-old Raijeli Tatola Makitalena and two-month-old Saviriano Maleli Nagata.

Meanwhile, Fiji’s road death toll stands at 41, compared with 58 for the same period last year.