Mātai's family grief 'THE BABY THAT IS SAVING US'

Holding his late brother's grandson brings bittersweet memories for the TV star

- Hayley McLarin

Mātai Smith struggles to get words out as the tears start to roll down his face.

Even four years on, it’s hard to recount the day he lost his brother. But it’s a story he wants to share – to pay homage to Hakim, who died literally on Mātai’s doorstep.

Mātai bought his house in Manutūkē, 13 kilometres south of Gisborne, only a year earlier, next door to his parents Whenu and Honey, and sharing a boundary with his aunt.

It’s his hometown, where he and Hakim went to the same school, and spent weekends climbing the feijoa and plum trees.

Hakim had been working on his aunt’s fence and sat on Mātai’s porch to enjoy a beer when he had a heart attack. He was 41.

Mātai was in Gisborne when his brother’s partner Sam called from Hakim’s phone, screaming, “Come home now, something’s wrong with Hakim.”

He arrived to see fi rst responders trying to resuscitate his beloved brother.

“I knelt next to him and said, ‘You can’t leave us, we need you, we love you.’ But I realised there was no coming back, so I whispered, ‘I love you, brother. I promise I will look after the kids.’

“He’s got two beautiful children, my nephew Hakim who’s named after him, and Samara. She was 17. Hakim was 20. I had to let them know, that was awful. I just burst into tears.”

They are harrowing moments 47-yearold Mātai will never forget, made worse, he says, by hearing his mother howling that her son had gone.