A personal story recounts a hard pregnancy in 1995 and the belief that continues to influence an expanding family more than thirty years later.
Leilani Losehina Tukuafu is now presenting her family’s narrative through “A Legacy of Faith,” a personal reflection on her mother’s breast cancer diagnosis while pregnant, the unknowns surrounding Leilani’s own birth, and the religious faith that supported her parents.
The narrative revisits 1995, when Tukuafu’s mother discovered she had breast cancer at three months into her pregnancy. As the family remembers it, physicians suggested terminating the pregnancy and going forward with breast surgery, cautioning that postponing treatment could put both mother and child at risk.
Already raising two young children, her parents were given seven days to decide. Tukuafu details a period of prayer, fasting, and tough conversations as they balanced the medical recommendations against their deep-seated convictions.
In the end, they chose to carry the pregnancy to term. In her account, Tukuafu acknowledges the fear, sleeplessness, and physical suffering that accompanied that choice.
While pregnant, her mother traveled from New Zealand to the United States to see relatives, first in Sacramento, California, and then in Salt Lake City, Utah. During her stay in Utah, she felt a strong urge to go to the Salt Lake Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Accompanied by her young son, she requested a meeting with the temple president, George I. Cannon, and sought a blessing. Tukuafu relates that her mother described her diagnosis and the uncertainty she was confronting.
According to the account, President Cannon gave a blessing that conveyed reassurance, family, and the potential for additional children. Her mother then called her husband in Auckland right away to tell him what had occurred.
“As long as we stay close to our Heavenly Father, we’ll be okay,” her father responded, as recorded in Tukuafu’s story.
After returning to New Zealand, her mother kept experiencing severe pain as her December due date approached. On December 25, 1995, she went to the hospital but was informed the delivery was not yet imminent.
The next day, December 26, Leilani Losehina Tukuafu was delivered at the family residence in Māngere, Auckland. Her father called an ambulance, and both mother and baby were transported to the hospital. They came home a few days later.
Tukuafu reports that subsequent medical tests showed no detectable cancer in her mother, even though physicians warned it might recur. She sees the circumstances of her birth as a deeply personal experience of faith and thankfulness.
Three decades on, her parents have eight children—five daughters and three sons—including the five children born after Leilani. The family now also includes six grandchildren.
“We are so grateful to our Father in Heaven for his continued blessings,” Tukuafu writes.
Through “A Legacy of Faith,” she considers how her parents’ experience shaped her own belief in God and Jesus Christ. Her testimony acknowledges the difficulty of life’s challenges while expressing the strength she gains from prayer, family, and her relationship with her Saviour.
She ends with a message to others facing doubt: “You are not alone!”
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