WIDOWED AT 28

When Fijian-born Sonam Sharm kissed her husband nd goodbye as he went out on the motorbike she’d got him as a present in 2017, she couldn’t imagine that would be the last st time she’d see him alive.

Just a few hours later, police were at the family home in Botany, Auckland, telling ng Sonam, 28, that her husband had died in a traffic accident. She was now a single mum to their son Aryan, now two.

“And I was also pregnant with our second child,” tells Sonam. “The police were suddenly here, saying he was gone. e. I couldn’t understand the emotions. I kept ept thinking, ‘This isn’t real. It has to be a joke.’” oke.’”

The corporate travel consultant, who o has lived in New Zealand for the past decade, lost her baby in the months after er her husband’s death. She then had to sell the family home as they didn’t have e life insurance.

“The hardest thing wasn’t actually losing osing my husband, but being a good mother while my heart broke,” she confesses. “That was the hardest time. I was emotionally distressed, but I still had to try to be the best I could be because I had a child.”

Sonam is the first to admit she is a fighter and these days, she says she has to stay healthy in mind and body to juggle life as a mum and as a career woman with no support. Her family is currently in Fiji and have been unable to get visas.

“Do you go back to Fiji, where there are few opportunities but you have your family and support, or do you stay and work five days a week, with your son in daycare, in the hope that he has a better start in his life?” she muses. “I battle with this daily.

“But I decided earlier this year, I wanted to be in control of my life and my emotions. I want to be an amazing mum, a career woman, and have a fit and healthy body. And the trade-off might be that I’m lonely sometimes, but that’s OK.”