GOING to live in the Samabula Old People's Home in Suva is the best decision 66-year-old Mereoni Mokoi has made in her life.
It has been five long years since that day but she has not looked back in regret.
With a smile of relief, Mereoni admitted she is where she has found peace and solace.
"I had always been searching and looking for something before but I didn't know what it was," she said.
"There was an urge inside me to find it.
"I was always stressed, depressed because of this and was confused about my life," said Mereoni.
"Coming here changed everything.
"It was like a new chapter for me.
"It was my personal decision to come here.
"I had no idea that I will find what I had been looking for all my life," she said.
The answer to all her problems was the word of God and the miracles in it.
"After three months of my stay here, I found what I was looking for.
"I found peace with the word of God and serving his very people gives me great happiness.
"My life changed since I came here.
I became closer to God," Mereoni said.
In her spare time, reading the Bible and praying is what she prefers.
Mereoni said before her life did not have a clear direction and she had no idea where she was heading.
She enjoys the church service held three times a week at the home, saying it makes her stronger in the Lord day by day.
Mereoni is the only one among the 16 residents at the home who can speak English fluently.
She is a smart and intelligent woman who had an interesting career before retiring to the home.
Mereoni was a tutor at the Fiji School of Nursing from 1970 to 1980.
She then shifted to the Old People's Home as the superintendent for the next four years.
That was her favourite job but then she shifted to the Tamavua Hospital as the matron there for the next three years.
In 1987, Mereoni again joined the Fiji School of Nursing as a tutor and stayed there until 1992.
In September 1992, she was hit by stroke and was paralysed from head to toe.
That, she said, was difficult to deal with and things got worse for her two years ago when her left leg was amputated.
She rested at her Ragg Avenue home, Suva's posh Tamavua area house after her stroke with her son and his family after which she preferred spending sometime in her village of Lomanikoro, in Rewa.
No matter how hard she tried, she was still not settled and grumpy about life.
"I did not feel like spending the rest of my life in the village and it was good that I was getting little better.
"I asked my family to bring me here which was the best decision that I ever made," she said with satisfaction.
Staying at the home, she said was more alive for her as she meets people of her own age group and she enjoys the jokes and talk they share with her.
"It feels good to be here with the people I know and fit in with.
We talk, laugh and share jokes and we love the church service they have for us," she said.
But most importantly, Mereoni enjoys the company and service of trainees from Caregiver Service International who do their attachment at the home, caring and helping the residents to feel really at home.
"This gives me the greatest happiness of all.
"Seeing these trainees do service to us reminds me of my students at the nursing school.
"I came to realise that teaching those students was not a waste.
"It is good to know that people now still give importance to this and care about old people," said the lady with the greatest sympathy in her eyes.
Mereoni has two children and six grandchildren.
Her son lives in Fiji while her daughter lives in the United States of America with her family.
Mereoni says she wants nothing more than to spend her remaining years of her life at the Home.
All she would like to continue happening, is seeing the friendly faces of her visitors.
Mereoni says more people should feel free to drop into such homes.
Every visit makes a lasting impression on the residents who are often starved of outside company and relish every new face they see, she says.
And, she believes such visits can people stay in touch with the spiritual selves.
The home is run by the State and is one of several dotted around the country.
