Former Columban Lay Missionary, Losana Ve’ehala from Tonga passed away unexpectedly at the Lay Missionary House in Suva on Sunday December 10, 2017.
We invited her to Suva for the opening of the Columban Centenary celebrations and for Fr Pat Visanti’s ordination. A person bubbling over with joy, she brought light and laughter with her everywhere. Little did we know that Losana had come home to die.
She was scheduled to travel to Rotuma island for Fr Pat’s first Mass there. However she felt unwell and stayed in Suva. She collapsed and was taken unconscious to hospital. After four days she was discharged with a diagnosis of asthma. It was an asthma attack that took her so suddenly.
A Mass was celebrated at the Lay Missionary house that day by Tongan Fr Taukei who was also visiting for the ordination of Fr Pat Visanti. In his homily Fr Taukei asked “Why did she die in Suva; why did she die with the Columbans?”
Losana was one of nine children and grew up on Tongatapu, the main island of Tonga. She was the third of the nine Ve’ehala children to pass away.
After primary schooling in Niutoa, her village, she attended St John’s College, the oldest Catholic Secondary school in Tonga.
She worked for some years after school in the Ministry of Finance in Nuku’alofa, the capital. Losana then thought she would try a religious vocation but finally joined the Columban Lay Missionary program in 1996.
Fr Charles Duster, a Columban from the USA was then in charge of the Lay Mission program and Losana spent a year under his tutelage as she prepared for mission.
On Mission Sunday 1996 she was missioned to the Philippines by then Archbishop Petero Mataca of Suva. There she had to go back to school again to learn the Tagalog language and become familiar with Philippine culture. For the next seven years she worked with the poor and downtrodden while being based in historic Malate, the large Columban parish in Manila.
In 2004, she returned to Fiji and ran the Lay Mission program for three years, after which she decided it was time to return home to look after her father who is now 90 years of age.
Though she left the program, she never left the Columbans. She got a job in the Diocesan Office ministering to children and was our volunteer worker in Tonga. She did trojan work for us there, especially preparing candidates for the Columban seminary and Lay Mission program.
The Columbans have a small house in Tonga and she stayed there during the week and looked after Columban interests in Tonga. We will sorely miss her.
In answer to Fr Taukei’s question, “Why did she die in Suva; why did she die with the Columbans?” She died in the Columban Lay Missionary house in Suva because she was still a Columban at heart.
Accompanying her remains to Tonga for the funeral, together with her sister Maletina, it became clear how much she was appreciated. Her diocesan colleagues, priests and lay people were at the airport to greet her. Crowds, Catholic and Methodist, came to her home to pray and visit.
A funeral Mass was celebrated by Cardinal Mafi on Tuesday December 19, 2017.
May she rest in peace.
Columban Fr Donal McIlraith is the Columban Director in Fiji.
Related links
- Read more from The Far East, April 2018
