What lessons has your life journey taught you?

Jaydon | Kirikiriroa

Jaydon reflects on his mum’s strength and determination after the loss of his father, sharing how her resilience in building a business and supporting their whānau continues to inspire him.

“Something I didn’t want to do, like really didn’t want to do ages ago was at my Dad’s funeral in 2020, I was asked to speak by my mum. And that wasn’t an easy thing for me to do. But I knew if I didn’t do it, it would be something I would regret for the rest of my life. So I ended up doing it and immediately after, I felt better.

And from then on, any time I’ve had to speak at something very important, like a family funeral or at a wedding or something, I never pass up on the opportunity. Because even though I don’t want to do it, for someone it would mean a lot.

Really, it was my mum. So the day he passed away, she signed a lease to a building that would eventually become her business. The one thing that kept her going and stuff, in terms of running her business was, it’s what my dad would have wanted. She says that if my dad passed away before she signed the lease, she wouldn’t have done it.

So yeah, it’s really my mum. She’s one of the people that, if it has to be done, it’ll be done. While it sucks that my father passed away, she knew that she was the only provider of the house from then on and she had to keep going.

I’m really proud of my mum because no matter how tough things in life get, whether it’s a big issue or a little issue, she just keeps going. And it’s helped me with some stuff in my life, especially with school. I look at her as kind of like an example.”