Mr Molia Sio’s ashes are sitting at a funeral home in Auckland waiting to be collected, as the search continues for his family.
Mr Molia Sio, better known as “Joe” is believed to have passed away around the 2nd of February at 69 years of age.
Despite extensive searches for his family, no one came forward and the scheduled funeral service for Mr Sio was held last Friday. His service was attended by 40-50 people including Nick Bakulich – the Auckland funeral director who led the search for his family, the Mangere MP Sua William Sio, Housing New Zealand representatives who knew him, as well as fellow work mates and friends from the local RSA.
The search for Mr Sio’s family led people to believe that he had moved to New Zealand in the early 60′s and that he has two children, a daughter and a son who supposedly are living in Australia. Through the inquiries, searchers learnt that Mr Sio is Samoan from the village of Aleipata and that he attended a Samoan Seventh Day Adventist church. They were led to believe that he may have married a non-Samoan woman and eventually lost touch with the wider Samoan community. Unfortunately the search failed to lead to anything concrete so the facts remained speculation.
Rona McKenzie, the secretary of the Onehunga RSA, which Mr Sio frequented said “he was a happy, sort of casual guy, always smiley.” The general feeling from the people in attendance at the service was that Joe “was a really nice man”.
Mangere MP Sua William Sio said ”It disturbed me. I suppose as Pacific, or Samoans, we pride ourselves on being part of these huge collective extended family circles and here was this man who obviously belonged to a family, a father, a grandfather, a son, an uncle and nobody really came forward”. A feeling that was evident and widely expressed across the pacific social media community.
Joe was cremated and his ashes will be retained by at Greysons Funeral Home where his family can collect them “no questions asked”, Bakulich said.
Source: Stuff, Image – Samoan Observer
Sad!!! I new Joe well when i worked at the RSA, a wonderful friendly gentleman. How can this be.?? Very disturbing to hear that no-one has kept contact and come forward to lay this gentleman to rest in peace. Goodbye Joe, great memories of the times we shared and Knowing you. Bless your soul.
That is so sad how can his family not know of what’s happened to Joe may you Rest in Peace and what happened to all the information from the Seventh Day Adventists and his recent family..