Zita & Alan Halliday

"I know we've come a long way

We're changing day to day,
But tell me, where do the children play?"

- Cat Stevens

In the sunset corner of the Magiagi cemetery, at the western end of Vaivase Rd, there is a small overgrown patch, bound in corroding steel posts and chain, where rest two of Nana’s siblings.

When Dad- Cornwall- visited earlier this year, he recalled visiting the children’s grave with his mother, half century ago, before departing Samoa. We searched, amid the familiar names of early Samoa, evidently still neighbours- Brighouse's and Paul’s, Retzlaff’s and Merideths’, but the grave we sought was elusive on that day.

It was ‘Aunty’ Freida who later helped me, remembering the burial in a conversation- though I do not know the story of their deaths. By chance, I found myself at the cemetery again last evening- walking past on my way somewhere else, less important. I remembered Aunty Frieda’s directions, and in the dying daylight, strayed in. Without her help, I could not have found the inconspicuous plot, or the headstone concealed by ivy and grass, nor would I have had reason to strip away the vegetation to read:

In Loving Memory of

Zita Shirley Lenore

Aged 8 years

Alan Lloyd Revere

Aged 7 years

Children of Henry Lloyd

And

Teulia Diana Halliday

Died Apia Samoa 1927