WHILE Maria Saisai endured labour pains as she looked forward to the birth of a child in May last year, her eldest daughter, the late Adi Niqa Sekoula Wasaliwa, struggled to survive the sea ordeal that eventually claimed her life in waters off Taveuni.
It all happened on the same day May 23, 2011.
Mrs Saisai was admitted at Taveuni Hospital in Waiyevo not knowing that over the horizon of the sea, which she could see from her hospital bed, her daughter desperately gasped for life as she fought against huge waves.
Adi Niqa and her partner Tevita Ravia Vereti were on their way to Taveuni from Naqelelevu when the boat engine broke down causing it to capsize.
Adi Niqa didnt make it to shore but asked the forgiveness of her partner Tevita before she died at sea.
Her body has never been recovered.
Their story was The Fiji Times story of the year last year.
And on the eve of May 23, Mrs Saisai who lives on Yanuca Island, gave birth to a baby girl whom she named after her eldest daughter the late Adi Niqa.
I didnt know my daughter went to Naqelelevu because she was here with me and only asked to go to Taveuni two weeks before I got the news of her death.
After I gave birth, I was resting in the hospital ward and breastfeeding my baby when a relative came to see me.
The relative didnt look happy or sad so I kept quiet and just stared back as he sat beside my bed.
Tears started flowing down his cheeks and only then I realised that it was bad news.
When he told me my eldest daughter had died out at sea, I couldnt hold myself. I just yelled out for her and cried in the ward as I looked at my baby.
To this day, Mrs Saisai has never met Tevita but she misses her daughter every day.
It is the most painful experience a mother can ever go through in life to give birth to your youngest child and lose your eldest on the same day.
I have never met Tevita and I dont know what he looks like. But I miss my daughter and there have been days when I look out to sea and just wish I could see my daughter again.