MUMS LIVING WITH LOSS

Four deserving mothers enjoy a day of pampering

The last time Anita Woodger visited the historic Auckland homestead of Alberton was 23 years ago. She had just found out she was pregnant with her fourth child, Jeff. Tragically, her beloved youngest son died last August following an eightyear battle with melanoma.

Anita, 56, is one of four deserving mums brought together by Woman’sDay and Labour MP Carmel Sepuloni for a special Mother’s Day celebration. Their day of pampering includes a limo ride, glamorous makeover, gifts, flowers, bubbly and a high tea complete with scones, cucumber sandwiches and dainty china.

Readers will know Anita’s son Jeff Paterson as the brave

young man who spearheaded last year’s successful campaign to have the life-saving melanoma drug Keytruda a publically funded. But to Anita, he was “my baby, a deep thinker and a deep talker”.

His death has thrown her world “inside out and upside down”.

Anita explains, “I just feel lost, but he couldn’t have made me prouder. Jeff always thought about others and never complained. Even when he was dying, he asked me to keep the awareness out there – to tell people how important it is to have skin checks.”

Sangeeta Devi isn’t sure about the stunning white outfit she’s chosen for our shoot – until she hears the other mums’ gasps. “You look beautiful,” they say in unison. Sangeeta manages a smile, but the tears aren’t far away.

The past fortnight has been one the 40-year-old describes as “like dying every day”.

Sangeeta came to New Zealand from Fiji in 2010 to study. Her 12-year-old daughter Shurti, who has cerebral palsy, remained in Fiji in the care of her elderly parents Kamla and

Bul Krishna, with Sangeeta returning home each semester break. After graduating in business management, Sangeeta met and married father-of-two Jay Kumar.

Meanwhile, the health of her parents was deteriorating, so Sangeeta and Jay applied for New Zealand residency for Shurti, but it was declined because of the potential health costs. Then, two weeks ago, another tragedy hit – Sangeeta’s beloved mum died.

“It was shocking for me,” she tells. “I was organising to get time off work to see her. She was buried the day I was supposed to get there.”

Sangeeta is worried about Shurti’s education – she often misses class due to transport issues – and desperately wants to be reunited with her.

Later at our shoot, little Wikitoria Penney, four, gives her mum Tracey a massive hug. “You look gorgeous, Mummy,” she cries. A tetraplegic since she was hit by a car at just two, Tracey is wheelchair-bound.

Last December, she was forced to spend six weeks living in a van when the Ministry of Social Development