It hurt a lot to accept that Koro has passed away. I have so many memories of Koro from playing cards in the garage to my wedding the one thing I regret is not being there for him as much as I should have.

Michael

When Dad and I were working at Ford Motors he told me how the people at work called him Ron. He was a Team Leader on the Machine Line and had a lot of Chinese and Fillipino Operators working under him. They would try to pronounce his name as longapai, woongapai, wongapai and eventually it got to the stage where enough was enough. He said “You fullas can’t pronounce my name properly so from now on just call me Ron”. As the years carried on at Ford he got another name. They called him Captain. He was very much respected as a leader and loved by his co-workers. He loved his job.

Wereta Hona

Koros idea to pull this particular face because of cuzzy Ashley. Short and sweet this was and will be the best night ever spent at a pub. The best company! Miss koro so so much!

Mariah Hona

This photo was taken just before Bebe and Jacob got married at home. Mum and Dad had been cooking all night, they had been mowing lawns, planting pink and white flowers weeks leading up to it. Dad just loved providing hospitality to visitors especially when his pots of boil up were near empty by the end of the day. He knew everyone loved it “Ahhh lovely Polly…sit down and have a break”… he was so proud of how everything looked and that there was plenty of Kai to feed everyone – I think he was very generous.

Polly

We loved coming to keep you company and have breakfast with you while nan went to the pools, listening to ya having a moan about something yarning away. Made me heart warm seeing the way you were with Thea, it’s sad you won’t get to meet all your other new moko’s who have entered this world. You never got to watch Thea grow and now I have a son who won’t get to meet you aswell, but your family will tell all their children about you and you will live on within them. I’ll miss seeing your notes around the place about putting proper stuff in the bins, or bringing something that belongs to you back lol, always having a jack nohi over the fence, your boilup, seeing you always pottering out the back tidying up by the pool, writing your to do list and id have a giggle to myself when i see one task to do is (cut whitesox biscuits), walking in the lounge to you going “ahhh” ready to fill me in with the latest news or something hard case that happened. All these I miss when I think of you, love you Koro

Bex

Hi Dad, I miss you so much. I think about you every single day. I get pictures of you popping up on my phone and when I see them I feel sad but happy that I know you are watching over me. The Hona/Thompson/Phillips whanau are good, you would be crying right now if you saw all of your beautiful mokopuna and your great mokopunas. These new babies would adore you dad & you them. I can vision you right now with them. I miss you Dad you are my “bluest heartache of the year” Watch over me please. Every time I come back home to New Zealand I will come and visit you. Make sure you look your best for me Dad. “shame shame on me” and I can see you right now with your holy singlet on haha The one with a perfect hole around your belly button. As for Mum you guys were always “two hearts tangled in love.” Until next time we meet dad “when it’s just you and me and there’s no in between us” I love you, I miss you…

Tina xxxx

One of the last photos we got of dad as a family altogether,we loved having dad over to stay with us. One of the last memories when he stayed was when we went to the butchers,he loved going to our butcher shop he’d look at all the meats & compare the prices & quality with the ones in manurewa, he’d tell me all the times they tried to rip him off & how he’d pull them up about it & growl them, he loved our butcher shop just as much as our pub & t.a.b.That day at the butchers he brought 2kg of beautiful diced beef he said it was a treat for Toby ”make sure you feed it to Toby” he said. After we dropped Dad off to go home the kids went to feed it to Toby & I said No! That’s for our dinner…the kids were like” but Koro said it’s for Toby…and like Dad would’ve of said when I was younger I said…”stuff Toby….lol & don’t you tell Koro either lol. Love you dad, love you & miss you, my whole family loves & misses you

Just thinking about Dad makes me cry and to put it down I’m finding even more difficult. So I had to wait till after my shift when I could think clearer. Dad didn’t like sad things so I’m not going speak of any. Dad loved visiting the new mokos, making people laugh, playing match stick tricks, jokes. When all the kids were little every Friday he and Nan would buy big shopping bags of goodies for the mokos. It used to do my head in lol cos I knew they would be bouncing off the walls and not listening to anything I said…And now that I’m a nan?? Hehe..it’s so much giggles

Ange

The last time I saw Koro was when me and Andrew visited for Christmas in 2015. It was the day we were going back to Australia. Our Last family meeting, I was laying on the couch hugging Koro the whole time. We all had to say a highlight of our trip. When It came to Koro he was saying that he loves catering for people and loves when people come to visit them. Then he started shaking and crying, I started crying cause while he was talking, he was hugging and squeezing me really hard. I could feel his energy and I knew it was gonna be my last time with Koro . I will never forget that because Koro gives the best one of a kind cuddles. I will miss that so much and when we have a family drink up under the stars. We all take turns sharing funny, sad, happy memories about you and your life while listening to the music you loved. Your smile is one of a kind. I love and miss you everyday Koro.

Love Ashes