Molokai History:
(from “The Separating Sickness: Ma’i Ho’oka’awale: Interviews with Exiled Leprosy Patients at Kalaupapa, Hawaii” by Ted Gugelyk and Milton Bloombaum, Ma’i Ho’oka’awale Foundation, Honolulu, HI, 1979)
Male, Part-Hawaiian
Widowed, Blind, Disabled
Age: 80
65 years at Kalaupapa
That Wild Germ, Bucking Like A Wild Horse
The worst problem I have had was the separation of my body from my blood and flesh on the outside, from my family. Most of my family is gone now, but I did get married inside, and something good came from that. I have children, and twelve grandchildren and great-grandchildren. So I am lucky that way. I don’t leave Kalaupapa much, except to see my children and my moopunas. I go when I am in top shape, when I feel good. That is about once every three years. My children were raised hanai [adoption] style by my family. So I was lucky there too. I never was rejected by my family.
Well, because of God’s great love — here I am. When I visit with my grandchildren, they make me feel like a diamond in the blue sky. That’s good because I am one of the oldest people in the settlement. I been here since 1914. And I will stay here until they put me into the belly of our ground.
Blessings, much pule and much pono!
Fr. Brian, ss.cc.
Priest
Topside Molokai