An Ardent Letter Writer, RIP ALLEN

Tukai Lagonilakeba,

Nadi

Isaaaaa noqui tau Allen.

He lived a good part of his young life with his wife and children here in Namaka as he was at that time an employee of Fiji Customs and Excercise Duty then.

He loved his yaqona, talanoa and ucu mai duru rounds where he gained insight and knowledge of who’s who from those millions of grog sessions.

One of my uncles from Bemana in the upper reaches of the Sigatoka Valley would frequent my home in Nadi and l would invite Allen over for a session with him where they befriended each other.

My uncle attended school at St.Joan of Arc in Sigatoka many moons ago, but for reasons unknown he graduated himself out of school when in Class Two.

English was absolutely a no go to him, but one of those evening Allen asked my uncle this question: Ratu, what is the English version for ose?, the reply was ohe in his Navosa dialect and there was great laughter that followed with some tauvu from Kadavu also present.

Allen’s next question was; Ratu, what do you call a donkey in English?, my uncle’s reply was doqe and again much to the delight and laughter from those tauvu’s.

Wherever we would meet or accidentally bump into each other Allen would call out ohe and my reply will be doqe knowing Allen Lockington is somewhere near.

Isa RIP doqe. Thank you for all the letters from those many post mortem sessions that would most certainly appear in our dailies the very next day.

In his late years of retirement Allen was a great and caring social worker who goes out of his way to ensure that the unfortunate ones with those in need are assisted where ever possible.