2008-07-12-9:52 p.m.

Hello Everyone – Alii! – Thank you for coming today.

Today we rejoice in the love of my mom, the many blessings we received from her, and the memories we share together.

She would say to me to “keep it short, don’t make a big speech”, so I’ll try to keep it short. She would love today, the chance to get together and share stories, songs, and food. And she would make enough abrabang and tama to feed us all many times over.

When we first went to the hospital, just like how my mom is, we did It on her terms. We went shopping for sandals, and muumuu’s – she made sure she had everything she wanted, the way she wanted it, before we went.

She was on the top floor of St. Anthony Central – overlooking Sloan’s Lake. When we would visit we would sit there and look at the lake, and the people walking by. She wanted to test that walk around the lake. At about 2.5 miles, she figured she could knock it out easy because it was a flat track around, not like the hills she walked every day on her route by the house. That was my mom, always up for a challenge, always willing to go the distance.

The first day she started dialysis – when we went to pick her up she stood by the front door with my wife Ginger while I went to bring the car. As soon as I pulled the car around, here comes my mom out the doors. Ginger, picking up her things frantically trying to catch her. The walkway was a little bit of a downhill and my mom started to lose her balance and veer a little to the right, but she kept on going. Ginger caught up with her and helped her to the car. When they got to the car she thanked Ginger and I asked her, “Are you ok?” And she said, “I’m ok, just a little wobbly”.

That also was my mom:

- Too impatient to wait.
- Too stubborn to stop.
- Grateful and gracious to those around her.
- Surprisingly candid by using the word “wobbly” – I never thought I’d hear my mom say “wobbly”.

She was a wife, grandmother, mother, sister, auntie, cousin and friend. But I now realize to most everyone here she was more. She was a mother when you needed a mother, a sister when you needed a sister. She was an auntie when you needed an auntie, a friend when you needed a friend. She was teacher when you wanted to learn and an advisor when you weren’t sure of your way.

She lived her life in the service of the Lord, her community, her friends and her family.

A few weeks in the hospital and she was already tired of the applesauce, jell-o, the juice and the bland diet. She closed her eyes and said, “I want to drink milk from a young coconut on my father’s land”. Looking at that now, I think it was her call to the Lord and to the islands. And the Lord and the islands brought her home.

And she’s there, drinking milk from a young coconut, and looking down on us and saying, “Did you guys figure out the abrabang and tama recipe yet?”

Mom, we cherish you - we keep you in our hearts, our minds and our spirits. We thank you for all the blessings you’ve given us and the memories we share.

Thank you, we love you.

d.