Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A 79-year old father, grandfather and great-grandfather with a heart condition walked into the Samoa News Office about 10:30 Monday morning. He appeared angry, sweaty with a red face but he controlled his voice while pouring out the reasons for his condition.

The retiree was desperate to share his frustrations, which overcame him after checking his mail box at the Fagatogo Post Office.

Mr Auvaa Meyer who has had a pacemaker since March of this year hadn’t been able to locate the key to mailbox for a while, so he had been collecting his mail over the counter.

That day, the post office employee gave him one envelope, and told him that’s all there was. However, Mr. Meyer suspected there should be more in that box, because his wife was expecting important mail from overseas plus their water bills.  So he walked over to his mailbox, and peeked through the window where he saw several envelopes left in his box.

From there he started to feel angry and decided to find that key right away. He thoroughly looked inside his vehicle and finally found it. He then went back and collected the mail from his box.

But what triggered his anger was being lied to by someone. “I’m not happy when someone lies to me, and what’s wrong with saying, there’s more mail in your box, but can’t be released, I can understand.”

He said it’s not the first time that’s happened, which resulted in some late payment of their water bills.

That’s not the only service that needs improvement, he said — starting from outside in the parking lot where vehicles take up parking spaces meant for people with disabilities. Mr. Mayer told Samoa News that he has to look and look for a parking slot most of the time when he came to the Post Office.

The father of four, with 20 grandchildren and 16 great grandchildren is a member of the Farmers Association, selling bananas, yams, young coconuts (niu) and vegetables at the market, during the week. He brings in close to $500 a week to help out his family.

Mr Meyer ended up telling his life story after feeling relaxed while sipping some ice water.  

“I lost my mother while I was only four years old, in 1949,” said the once successful businessman who used to own three commercial fishing boats. The business went down after the Tropical cyclones in the 1990s, Ofa and Val, damaged his vessels. The governor at the time discontinued a grant that helped them out.

Then he was hired by Henry Sesepasara to skipper the government’s MV Sausauimoana, which lasted until he retired 20 years later.  

He started as an assistant captain to Paul Pedro, he said, and then later he took up the Captaincy until he retired in 2008. 

Going back in time, Mr Meyer remembers it was just after the Cyclone of 1966 when he migrated to America Samoa, started dating his neighbor and then in 1968 they got married. And they’ve been happily married for 55 years now.

Now staying home and enjoying his retirement with his wife, they both have happy memories of their lives from the past — and spend their time planting all sorts of edible plants, cultivating bananas, yams and more for the market daily supply. 

The Vaitogi resident also talked about how he ended up with a pacemaker. His wife Maria was a school teacher for more than 30 years. But in later years she slipped and ended up in a wheelchair, and now uses a cane.  

Mr Meyer believes that's when he started to have problems with his heart, as he didn't want to lose his wife. As a committed husband, he looks after her and is able to keep up their little farm with daily trips to the market.  

By the time Mr Meyer left, he was laughing and willing to also share about his church services over the weekend at his Ward. As he took his leave, he added, the ice water tasted sweet and the welcoming atmosphere gave him a sigh of relief.  God must have led him to Samoa News, he said.