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)
Female, Filipino
Married, Able-bodied
Age: 41
8 years at Kalaupapa
Love Could Not Overcome Fear
I got the disease when I was thirty-three years old. I came from the Philippines and married a local Filipino man in Honolulu. I had a good job working for the military in Honolulu. But one day, my eyes became red and I lost some weight. I had red blotches on my hand. My husband sent me to the doctor at Tripler Hospital, and he told me it was the leprosy. He did a biopsy and it came out positive. Four days later he called my house and said I should stay home — not go to work. That was in 1968 or 1969. He told me someone from the Health Department would come to my home and my disease to me.
I came to Kalaupapa voluntarily. I met my new husband inside Hale Mohalu. He understood how I felt, and he was kind to me. He was a permanent resident of Kalaupapa and he asked me to marry him, and come and live in Kalaupapa. I agreed and that’s how I arrived at this place. But, first I got my negative status at Hale Mohalu. I was declared negative. Still, even though I could have left Hale Mohalu, I decided to come to Kalaupapa with my new husband. I am not sorry. I have a good life here and I help take care of my husband.
I don’t have many problems, not like the other patients inside here. I have no scars on me. Those new medicines helped my condition. But still, Kalaupapa is my home, even though I don’t feel prejudice against me on the outside. The only prejudice I have felt was from my ex-husband and his family. That was enough for me.
May the Good God bless you with pono and I continue to pule for you! Peace!
Fr. Brian, ss.cc.
Priest
Kamalo, Molokai