“Lego mi ko seivem ol nara wan, me me finis yanao.”

According to his son, Larry Bule, those were the words of Elkenah Garae to a survivor who tried to save him after the  MV Matui sunk 

The meaning of those words still remain with his family: “Lego mi ko sevem ol nara wan, me me finis yanao.”

Elkenah was 67.

His family believes he was among the oldest people aboard the vessel.

And now, his first-born son, Larry Bule, is trying to come to terms with the possibility that those may have been his father’s final moments.

Larry said he later spoke with a survivor identified to him as Captain Aru, who told him he had tried to save Elkenah.

But his father’s leg was reportedly trapped in part of the vessel.

He could not move.

Captain Aru tried.

But Elkenah knew he could not get free.

Then, according to Larry’s account of that conversation, Elkenah told Captain Aru to leave him and save the others.

For Larry, those words are painful to hear.

Because while he was imagining his 67-year-old father struggling in the cold ocean, he was also remembering the man who had spent his life helping others.

Elkenah was a carpenter.

He built houses for people in his community and worked with the SDA mission, from Aore Island through to his home in North Ambae.

Even at his old age, he continued serving his community.

One of his last projects as a carpenter was building his community church voluntarily at around 50 years of age.

When age eventually made carpentry harder, he turned to farming.

He had started building up a farm of about one hectare of a fenced area for chickens.

That farm was waiting for him when he travelled to Santo to sell cocoa.

He wanted to go home.

Larry wanted his father to stay a little longer.

He encouraged him to have a medical check-up because he had been experiencing health problems.

But Elkenah insisted.

He was worried about his farm.

He wanted to return to his village.

So he began preparing.

Larry paid for his fathers ship fare.

He bought supplies.

Because of his age, he made several small trips carrying his belongings to the ship.

He was preparing to go home.

But Larry was not there when his father boarded.

Work commitments kept him away.

His father’s younger brother took him instead.

There was no final goodbye between Larry and his father.

No last conversation.

No final embrace.

Larry would later wish he had been there.

Then came the silence.

On Friday that week, Larry called his father around 10am.

No answer.

He called again later.

Still nothing.

By Saturday, he knew something was wrong.

He contacted the MV Matui Facebook page asking whether they knew where the ship was.

The answer did not give him certainty.

Then the news came.

The ship had sunk.

Larry’s immediately thought of his father.

He imagined a 67-year-old man in the cold ocean, trying to survive.

“It breaks my heart when I heard the news starting to come out, how I imagined my father being that old, how he will fight to struggle to survive in that cold ocean,” he said.

But there is another memory Larry cannot escape.

September 6.

Five days before the tragedy.

His father wanted a big rooster.

There were only two large roosters they had not planned to kill.

But Elkenah wanted one.

Elkenah bought the rooster with his grandson.

He cleaned it himself.

Then the family prepared lap-lap.

They ate together.

Father.

Son.

Grandson.

It was their final meal.

Larry did not know it at the time.

He only knows it now.

And perhaps that is what makes the loss harder.

His father had been preparing to return home.

He had a farm waiting.

He had chickens to care for.

He had family.

He had unfinished days ahead of him.

Instead, the last journey he took became the journey from which he did not return.

Larry said his family has come to accept that Elkenah passed away and believes his body went down with the ship.

Larry wishes he had been there to see him board.

He wishes there had been a goodbye.

He also wishes the rescue response had come sooner.

Larry said he believes that if the ship’s management had recognised the situation earlier and contacted authorities for help, more lives might have been saved.

That belief is now part of his grief.

But beneath the pain, Larry holds onto faith.

He remembers a father who worked with his hands to build homes for others.

A father who built a church for his community.

A father who farmed as he grew older.

A father who wanted nothing more than to return home.

And a father who, according to the account given to Larry, used his final moments to tell someone else to save the others.

Larry described his father as “a free man.”

He said his father had left his food, house and farm in the hands of his sons.

And although he regrets not being able to care for his father as he wishes he had, Larry says he believes in God.

He believes they will meet again.

For now, there is only memory.

A final meal.

A journey home.

A son who never got to say goodbye.

And words that may be the last anyone heard from Elkenah Garae:

“Lego mi ko seivem ol nara wan, me me finis yanao.”

Leave me. Save the others. I am finished .

This feature is based on an account provided to VBTC NEWS by Elkenah Garae’s first-born son, Larry Bule. The reported final exchange between Elkenah and a survivor identified as Captain Aru is presented according to Larry’s account of what was told to him.