By Indiya Livingston
“Fa’amolemole tulou faafetai le atua” is a phrase my Grandma would often say. The meaning is “Please thank god.” I know this because my aunts wrote a song on behalf of my grandmother, which they had my siblings and I sing for a few of our family members funerals and in other family events to simply hear this beautifully constructed song out of harmony and by way of the ukulele played by my dearest aunt, who played the uke like no other and had a strong and beautiful voice. I say had because I lost her to cancer a few years back. No one in my family knows how to play the uke like her, and when she passed we lost our sound. Our family jam sessions every Friday, with adult beverages and barbecue or Samoan food, just became Samoan food, drinking, while we sung along to the music played out of speakers. I lost my teacher of not only the uke, but of my native tongue too. I do not know my native language, but our musical gatherings with my family was one way I was learning it as we would sit and watch my aunts bust out lyrics to a song in Samoan. She was truly an inspiration to me; she wasn’t just my aunt, but she was my drill sergeant. She was someone who I am most alike and she became my best friend as well. When I first heard about what AYA was, it was my aunty Nita that came to mind. She didn’t go to college let alone high school. Growing up in Hawaii, she was struggling and she knew it, so she decided to go into military boot camp for high schoolers, and got her G.E.D from it. My aunt found love and out of that love came certain personal hardships, but they remained strong and united. My aunt was beloved by everyone she came into contact with, and she was the always the loudest in the room, while she brought laughter and tears to everyone who could come into contact with her. I say tears in the happy sense of laughter, but I also mean it in the sad way. My aunt was an expert at showing tough love when it was required. The AYA fern symbolized persistence and strength to the person I interviewed from AYA, and that she is, so “please thank god.”