Desperately seeking Sefu
Analise Forster knows there may not be a happy ending to her story.
Eight months after a public plea for her dad – or anyone who knew him – to get in touch, the Blenheim woman is still waiting ... and hoping.
Forster knows a small handful of things about her father – his name was Sefu or Sefo, he lived in Porirua in 1995, and he owned a Bob Marley jersey.
The 21-year-old wears it now, particularly when her anxiety is bad.
The Blenheim woman has accepted she might never find her dad but, before giving up, she wanted to make certain she had tried everything she could.
Sefu, or Sefo, became a father when Forster was born on March 23, 1996. Her parents had met the previous year when her mother, Kelly, was working as a hairdresser in Wellington.
‘‘My mother said someone was meant to tell him she was pregnant but he never got the message.’’
Last year’s public plea was made even harder by the anxiety Forster suffers, but she was determined to overcome it to try to find her dad.
After she told her story in August, she was flooded by enquiries and tips but the messages soon dried up or came to nothing, she said.
‘‘Mum found it hard, but only because she was concerned about me coping with it all.’’
Her search was about connecting with her Samoan heritage and discovering the other side of her life, she said.
‘‘I don’t want anything other than to get to know him; I don’t want anything else from him.’’