A Father's Life! For Jack!

After I wrote the obituary below, Father Bransfield's brother got in touch and, among other things, says he could never imagine Father's life in Fiji. This post is for him:



Jack, Father had lots of postings in Fiji including, among other places, Taveuni, Lomeri, Lami, and, at the end, a nice gentle posting at Lacaula Bay, in Suva, but you undoubtedly know all this and simply need visuals so they stop being "just names" to you.

Well, for nearly a decade, he was responsible for setting up Tutu Seminary on the island of Taveuni. He and the trainee priests literally build the place brick-by-brick and even built the bricks - and for visualising that ... well, just think of the most beautiful tropical setting you can imagine: on a ridge on the leeward side of an extinct volcano; just a clearing in the jungle with an achingly spectacular view plunging all the way down the densely green-jungled mountain, down to beachside copra plantations - all regimented rows of coconut trees - and across a sea of blue, green, aqua, teal and turquoise, dotted with little islands, towards the large and looming mountainous island of Vanua Levu.

Just think of a hands-over-the-heart, can't-breathe-for-the-beauty, want-to-cry, spectacular tropical scene and there you have ten years of your brother's life!

Tutu really was wonderful. We went to visit Father there when we were kids, while it was still under construction. They first had to build the road up the volcano, which was a feat of engineering in itself, then cut down a lot of jungle, and it was only once that was done that they could start building. What was done prior to our visit was the basics: the seminarians' dormitory, three guest cottages, and the mess hall, which was Father's design, with an entire wall - the one facing out to the view - made of glass. He was so proud of this accomplishment, he wanted to show it to my dad and that's why we were there.

Father's favourite gadget during this period was his movie camera and I believe he filmed all stages of Tutu's construction, so know there's a film out there someplace if you want to see it all for yourself. Or, if your health is up to it, go out and see it for yourself.

After that? Well, after Tutu was up and running, he was shifted to Lomeri Mission in Deuba to set up another seminary. For visuals, Deuba is an area between jungled-mountains and a series of beaches along the long stretch of coastal road between Suva and Sigatoka. It's all very pretty, yes, and the place-of-choice for Suva's retirees, but it's not nearly as beautiful as Taveuni, but that's only because nothing is. Taveuni really is one of the world's most beautiful islands and it's my dream to one day retire there; maybe to a place that has a view exactly like Tutu has, only closer to the beach because I also want a wharf I can fish off.

Father's life in Deuba? All through the 80s, the seminary was being constructed across the road from the old French Mission there. I do have a picture somewhere of what that looks like, and which also shows the house where Father lived for nearly 20 years, only I can't find it.

David Cade's photograph of Lomeri Cathedral
back in the 50s!
Thanks for this, David.

Lomeri Mission was built next to the beach by the French missionaries well over a century back, and, during Father's time, and today too, consists of a tiny, quaint, mouldy old cathedral, architecturally very beautiful, and a small white-painted wooden bungalow of no architectural value whatsoever where the priests lived, all situated within the deep shade of a stand of ancient European trees. Rather gloomy, yes, but wonderful if, like me, you love dank old gothic-esque little-bit-spooky places.

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! Googling for a photograph of Lomeri Mission, I've just come across a New Zealand site where they're talking about how they've just put in a new stained-glass window in the cathedral at Lomeri. Aaahhhh! Sacrilege! The stained glass windows they already had were sublime, made by a famous and wayy-gifted French artist, as was everything else in that cathedral - the Stations of The Cross they have are just gorgeous - except for the only pew, which, for the record, was made by Vili, the Occupational Therapist at Tamavua Hospital, himself a wayy-gifted artist, only he did it in wood, and which was a gift from my parents on the occasion of their wedding, which took place there in 1953.

I do hope that existing stained-glass window was simply one that had broken, maybe in a cyclone or something, and wasn't removed and replaced on some Kiwi whim; as part of an on-going Kiwi project to "modernise" the place! Mmmm, there's something I have to check out when I take advantage Air Pacific's new direct HK-Nadi flights - and Fiji be on notice because I hope to do it often - and next visit Fiji!

Wait a second, I do have a photo taken at Deuba, although it's of Loloma Beach where mum and dad retired. Let's see if I can find it:

Loloma Beach!

Right, if you look beyond our beach, see those two headlands in the distance? The second and farthest one away is Lomeri and the Mission is right there. And see in the foreground of this photo: the reef off that headland at Loloma Beach. Well, every morning, shortly after dawn, Father Bransfield would walk out there and swim across this bay from reef-tip to the reef-tip immediately below Shark Fin Hill from where this photo is taken, and then he'd turn around and swim back.

This was Father's ritual every morning for over a decade. He'd rise at dawn, say mass at Lomeri, and then, because Lomeri Beach is really just mudflats and mangroves, he'd drive to our beach and park his car immediately outside our gate, walk down Loloma Beach and swim twice across the bay, then he'd shower in our outdoors beach-shower, dress and mum would have breakfast ready and waiting by the time he came out, and then he'd go off to start his day.

The reason he'd park there was mainly for safety, so mum would know he was out there swimming and start a hue-and-cry if he didn't return in time. Deuba is renown for its riptides and it's also a famous shark-breeding ground ... so ... well, you know!

Anyway, Jack, I hope this gives you some visual sense of how your brother lived at only two of his postings in Fiji. He was indeed very happy in Fiji and his life was decidedly blessed by our blessed nation's enormous beauty.