My parents initially settled in a rat-infested place in Ponsonby, and like many Pacific Islanders of the 1970s, they moved with the Pacific tide and shifted to South Auckland where the housing was more affordable. However, my educated father knew it was not the place he wanted to bring up his children. Like many of my father's generation, with their meagre savings and by capitalising their family scheme benefit—a Labour policy from the days of Walter Nash—they put down a deposit to build a home on Auckland's North Shore. Little did my father know, though, he would have to leave his job soon after and go on the sickness benefit to care for his wife, who was diagnosed with cancer. Two years later, he would be a widower at the age of 40, with four children under the age of 11, living off the domestic purposes benefit.