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Written by Seuamuli Des Bentin
Monday, 12 May 2008
My mother lies in her grave about 15 meters from my kitchen window. I mention this fact because ever since Mata the Kama’i Meauli’s mother, and my wife Melissa, left for Auckland two weeks ago to be at her sister’s wedding, I have had to do the domesticated husband and father thingie, which includes doing the dishes, after closing the shop down at midnight. After the third night of doing dishes, preparing the next day’s breakfast and giving Mata the Septrin kid his asthma medicine and antibiotic fix before collapsing a couple of hours before dawn, I did not get better at it like they say. Last night, I got so clumsy I couldn’t stop banging dishes and cups against the tap the harder I tried not to, which is why I mentioned my mum as being a few meters away. When we had to’onai at her place, she winced so dramatically every time someone banged a plate or cup while washing the dishes that almost everyone who dared to have a go at it aged visibly while standing at the kitchen sink, with the strain of trying to do a Samoan family size pile of dishes, with only the most civilized of clinks to be heard. After apologizing to my mum for the third time last night for collecting the tap with another plate, which sounded very loud in the early hours of the morning, I decided to have a beer and precook today’s dinner instead. Couldn’t make too much noise making beef soup! I have also made a few changes to our normal routine because the sense of humor was fighting a losing battle as I tried to juggle household chores and business requirements as well as keep an eye on my son’s asthma attack. As our friend Sera from next door keeps telling me, all these changes have been required because the woman is missing from the family. She didn’t believe me when I said that we were coping quite well! This partnership called marriage certainly needs a functioning game plan and team work for things to run smoothly. Even unplanned stoppages for asthma attacks have to be allowed for so that stress and strain is maintained within an acceptable level. You know you are getting outside the acceptable level when you no longer have a laugh with your wife and children every day and the dog and cat take off in the opposite direction when they see you coming. Mata and I will have a motherless Mother’s Day today, but we are both big boys now. We know when to close down shop, leave the dishes and go check out the view from the Fale ole Fe’e headpond and talk about how well our mother’s have trained us! Have a happy Mother’s day folks! Comments (5) Subscribe to this comment's feed Fai faalelei si kakou mea written by Siaula, May 13, 2008 you people in samoalive why are you biased towards others who posted comments earlier and why not me? You only accepted negative comments as i've seen with people talking bad about the govt........Fai falelei si kakou amio, there should be a freedom of express and get the darn email thingy out... Amen to that.... written by makayo, May 13, 2008 Exactly...had a few of my postings not posted at all....talk about censorship at its best when there's actually be freedom of expression....faifaalelei si kakou amio...now that line sounds really familiar...other than that...keep up the good work.... Take care and God Bless Its A Happy Mothers Day written by Tifa O, May 13, 2008 Hey Siaula are you in the right column ? We were trying to acknowledge the Mothers here ! So a Happy late Mother's Day to you, your people, and our people !! ... written by Cheryl, May 15, 2008 Geez, take a deep breath guys..............I have to agree with Tifa that this is a light hearted story and perfect for Mother's day. Save that kind of commentary for more appropriate content. Your comments missed the mark on this story. Hey Cheryl and Tifa written by Des Bentin, May 18, 2008 Did I miss something here? I am squinting from the bottom of a 4th bottle of Vailima but I think I can gather from what you guys have said that someone has finally made some nasty comments about me or the "Power To The People" column. How disappointing! After 8 years of writing first in the Samoa Observer and now Newsline, someone has finally decided to call me names and I missed it because their comments did not show up on the Samoalive page I'm looking at! And you guys jumped to my defense! Are we related by any chance? Only my rellies would defend my blatant search for abuse from some people who have probably lived a few years in a palagi country and now consider themselves to be experts in the English language and still miss the point of "The half a page of nonsense" by a country mile! I agree with them though that "freedom of expression" should be paramount and whatever they wrote should not have been cut by the webmaster and editor. There's a defamation of character case in court right now though which in due consideration is probably the editor's way of protecting their sad asses! But all in all, you guys rock!! Write comment Name Email Title Comment

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