West Auckland grandmother who found 2-year-old Willow tells of harrowing moment

Fualaau Pelenato still remembers the moment her husband screamed as they drove down a busy street in West Auckland - and the momentary terror she felt, thinking she had run over a child.

She and her husband, Ulugia Pita Pelenato, had just picked up a late family lunch from KFC Lincoln Rd about 10 minutes after 2pm on Sunday and were headed home to Rānui.

On their journey down one of Henderson’s busiest streets - Universal Drive - they came across a little girl everyone would later know as 2-year-old Willow, whose disappearance sparked a six-hour search that day.

“We were about past the halfway mark [of Universal Drive] when my husband suddenly screamed,” she says.

“I looked at him and slowed the car down. I turned to him and said: ‘What is it?’ He looked towards the back and said: ‘There’s a child - we almost hit her’.”

Fualaau Pelenato is in tears as she explains what was running through her mind at the time.

“Do you know what I thought? I ran someone over. I thought I’d hit someone - but I just missed her.

Fualaau Pelenato, of Ranui, found Willow, 2, wandering on Universal Drive. Photo / Michael Craig

“Thank God I didn’t hit her. I was thinking - if I’d run over this child, I wouldn’t worry if I was locked up. But this child’s life couldn’t be returned. I’d just feel guilty.”

The Pelenatos stopped to check if the toddler was alright and expected to see someone older with her. However, no adult was in sight - and the toddler was now crossing the road.

“I jumped out of the car and ran to her. It was quite far and I was panicking. There was a child far away on the road and I could see a car coming.

“But other than that, the lane was not busy and I could run to her. I thought: ‘I can run there. I’m a good runner. I have to run’.”

In those seconds, little Willow had made it to the median island that separates Universal Drive into two lanes.

Pelenato said although the side they were on was not so busy, “many cars” were coming down the other side of the street.

She scooped the toddler up in her arms.

“She didn’t say a peep. No crying at all,” Pelenato says, overcome with emotion again.

Pelenato says she and her husband waited on the side of the road with the little girl for several minutes; stopping a number of cars near Zodiac St - where Willow’s family lived - asking if they knew who the child was.

After failing to find anyone, the couple decided to take her home with them; not wanting to give her to anyone with bad intentions.

“For safety reasons, I have to take her with me. I have to return her - I’m going to post something on Facebook to let the parents come.

“I’m not going to go knocking on everyone’s door here because what if I knock and they say: ‘Yeah she’s mine’. But I don’t know.”

The family planned to take Willow to the police station that afternoon if no one came forward.

Asked why she did not immediately call the Police, Pelenato said that all parents made mistakes sometimes and she did not want the little girl’s parents to have some sort of strike against them, because their child had wandered out of the house.

Pelenato says the little girl ate KFC with the rest of their family and played with her two young granddaughters Anna and Flower.

Waimirirangi Rudolph is happy and relieved to be reunited with her 2-year-old daughter Willow after the girl went missing from their Henderson home on Sunday. Photo / Jason Oxenham

In the meantime, Pelenato took to her Facebook page - calling on anyone who may be missing their child to contact her immediately and to send a photo of her as proof that she is their child.

Several hours later friends and family and members of their church started to call her to let her know a 2-year-old girl was missing in Henderson and that a huge search party was out looking for her.

Pelenato and her family loaded Willow into their car and had stopped at a nearby dairy to buy nappies for her when a police officer called her phone asking for their whereabouts.

“I said: ‘Come on Willow’ - I knew her name [by then]. You have to go to Mum and Dad now’. The policeman took her and we said goodbye.”

Fualaau Pelenato - whose first name means flower in Samoan - says she wanted to meet Willow and her parents one day, to let them know their little girl was cared for.

She still, however, thinks about the near-miss: “I just thank God for saving her.”