Emanuel Elijah David Waiti

I don't really know what to write for this post, but we definitely don't want to forget the special place that Emanuel has had in our lives for the past 2 years. I can't find words to describe how sad it is that he's gone, but we do cherish and remember him with a big smile.

He painted our mint green fence that bugged my husband no end

With a little help from sidekick Ella

He was sidekick Red to Joe while he built the deck cover

But mainly he was Joe's 'shotcrete apprentice'
(Joe sent me this pxt a few days before he passed away to show me that Manuel was wearing the cuffed jeans like I'm trying convince him to get...my reply 'Hot Red!'

The girls and I had lunch with the Stones and Leones at Constellation McDs on this day and drove past their worksite on the way home. We couldn't see Joe but we saw Manuel so we called out to him for ages but he couldn't hear us cause of his big ear muffs.....we left his hardhat on the coffin the other day :(

This boy was such a friendly, easy going guy. He had good manners and really wanted to do the right thing.

Here's just a few things I don't want to forget about him....

-He didn't like the bran and blueberry muffins I made when they were doing the chapel carpark repairs in Glen Innes about a month ago. I offered them to him and he said 'no thanks, I'm not hungry', then looked straight at Joe and said 'I'm hungry, can I go to the dairy for a minute!' Haha. He never liked my baking!

-He liked to buy our kids treats, chocolate bars, lollies, even when we told him to save his money and stop wasting it on our kids

-He asked Joe to drop him off one day when they first met and said it was just up the road, turns out it was deep in Whangaparoa!

-He loved Fejoas, thankfully I scooped out a big bowl each for Joe and him when they came home one afternoon to work on Joe's truck. That day I heard him telling Joe to 'shut up, you know about Shotcrete, I know about cars' I looked out the window to see Joe rolling his eyes and saying 'oh ok Bro'

-Joe didn't like being called his boss because he always said they were friends/bros and we really hope he knew that. Apparently his family said he never badmouthed Joe, but whenever he spoke of him it was 'I'm going to get some money from my boss!'

Here's some other pics of him with his friends and family.

We'll miss you Manuel