By TIMOCI VULA

(Fiji)–While most children around the country look forward to Father’s Day to celebrate the day with their dads, it will not be the same for Nausori Primary School class four student Paulini Nasokia.

Paulini lost her father Kitione Nasokia, 49, in a roadside bomb attack in Baghdad last Wednesday where he was a security guard for Triple Canopy, a security firm based in Kuwait, since 2004.

Josivini Nasokia and her only child Paulini Nasokia with a picture of her dad Kitione Nasokia who died in Iraq

“I really miss my dad,” Paulini said, holding onto a framed picture of her dad.

“I don’t think Father’s Day will be the same now since he is gone,” she said, adding she and her mother were just planning to buy a gift for him and send it via a contingent of army personnel preparing to leave for the Middle East.

Her mum Josivini Nasokia said she was informed of her husband’s death on Thursday morning by an agent of Triple Canopy based here in Fiji, Major Albert Whippy.

She said she was on her way to work that day when she received a phone call.

“I somehow knew what the meeting was about when I sensed the atmosphere inside the vehicle so all I wanted to know next was whether he was injured or worse. It was when we reached home that I was told of the bad news and that he died in a roadside bombing,” Mrs Nasokia told the Fiji Times.

Mrs Nasokia recalled last Sunday being the last time she spoke to her husband.

“We were talking and he kept telling me to ensure that our daughter was taken to church every Sunday,” she said.

Mrs Nasokia said since his death, Paulini finally told her of their secret plan with her father in coming to Fiji for a visit next month instead of January as expected.

“They (Paulini and her father) were always talking on the phone and this was their little secret,” she said.

“I will miss him dearly. Just when our relationship as husband and wife and as a family was reaching its sweetest, as usual, and he departs us but I thank the Lord for his life and the duty he had performed,” she added.

Mrs Nasokia said her husband’s body would arrive into the country today from Kuwait with burial plans scheduled for Saturday.

She said she was expecting officials from Triple Canopy to inform her of the details surrounding her husband’s death.

It is understood Mr Nasokia is the first local security to die in the line of duty as employee of Triple Canopy.