Fu'utoa Tupouniua Takapu Pasi's Obituary
Fu’utoa Tupouniua Takapu Pasi returned to our Heavenly Father on Aug. 15, 2017, after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer’s disease. She died peacefully at age 81 surrounded by loved ones at home in Hayward, Calif. She joined her husband, Sione, who died four years earlier on Aug. 16. They were married for 53 years.Fu’utoa was born to Lavinia Anau and Sione Foueti Tupouniua on May 21, 1936, in Tonga. She graduated from Tonga High School and completed teacher training in Fiji. She taught at Liahona High School in Tonga and a business school in Honolulu, Hawaii. She started her American Dream in Magna, Utah, and helped bring most of her siblings and their families to the United States for better lives. She took pride in her children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews who achieved diplomas and degrees, embarked on careers and LDS missions, and purchased homes. For decades, she worked at OC Tanner in Salt Lake City and spent her free time continuing her education and serving The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After retiring in the mid-1990s she helped manage the family exporting business until granddaughter Catherine Jessica was born. It did not take long before she was a full-time homemaker for the first time in her life.As disease erased most of her memories, Fu’utoa never forgot her husband or her daughter Loisi, whose family cared for her the last decade of her life.Fu’utoa is survived by children Mele Ika (Leroy), Latu Nahau Takapu Vikilani (Toni Vikilani; prev. Bruce Reichenbacher), Morning Star Takapu (JoLynn), and Loisi Anau Ki He Sina Takapu (Moli); Tupouniua siblings Fatafehi (Ofeina), Kasa Siale, Sione Motuhi Fonua (Manu), Sinamoni, Tonga (Siosiua) Taunaholo, Talita (Liu) Valele, and Hale (Veiongo); grandchildren Christine Yee, Catherine Wall, Loisi Yee, Candice Stenger, Luna Taumalolo (Mapa), Brittany Star Takapu, Shaena Lynn Takapu, Catherine Jessica Reichenbacher, Morning Star Takapu, Jr., and Salome Moli Finau; and 12 great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents and younger siblings Siosefa Tupouniua and Lolohea Tupou.The family would like to give special thanks to Haleavalu and Veiongo Muti, who cared for Fu’utoa with great love and compassion in her final days.The family will hold a viewing service from 6-10 p.m. Friday, Aug. 25, at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints chapel at 2000 Highland Blvd., Hayward, CA 94544. A funeral will take place from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 26, at the same chapel. She will be interred at 1 p.m. Saturday at Lone Tree Cemetery, 24591 Fairview Ave., Hayward, CA 94542.
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