Jamie | Hokitika, West Coast

“A couple of months back, Tāua passed away, and it was a wee bit hard for me and my family and whānau, but I have a brother up in Auckland, and he kind of felt a wee bit struck by it as well, so he always had my back, and every time I was a wee bit sad, he’d always cheer me up, and I was just real grateful for him, for those couple of weeks.

Tāua died of cancer, and there was a solid couple of weeks where she got progressively sick, and it just kept on getting worse and worse, but she was a trooper. She stuck through, but it just got to that point where she couldn’t hang on anymore, and she passed away, and it was a wee bit hard for me and my whānau, but he was always there. He always knew how to cheer me up when I was always sad, and he was sad, too but he never worried about himself. He always worried about me and made sure that I was okay. He couldn’t make it down to us from Auckland because of Covid, so it was a wee bit hard for him to say goodbye, but he always tried to be there, I just think I was always grateful for that.

I kind of learned that no matter what, love is always strong. He loved Tāua. I loved Tāua and Tāua loved all of us so much, and no matter what, he always loved her, and he loved us, and we always loved him.

My advice would be to stay strong. It gets better. It’ll be rough for a while, but it does get better and it will get better.

I’ve always grown up here on the Coast. I lived here my whole life, but I’m from all over the place. My mum’s from here, and my dad’s from over in Christchurch ways but I’ve lived here all my life. 

There’s no harm in being grateful. You’re not going to look dumb being grateful. Being grateful is awesome. It’s just showing your appreciation for someone in an awesome way, and people should do it more often, because sometimes people don’t know that someone actually cares for them a lot. Love you’s all.”