I Am Grateful To Our Benefactors: Interviews with Exiled Leprosy Patients at Kalaupapa, Hawaii

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
Blind, Disabled, Married
70 years of Age
57 years at Kalaupapa and Hale Mohalu

The State Has Provided: I Am Grateful To Our Benefactors (At Leahi)

They caught me in school. I guess you heard that one before. I was in elementary school in Honolulu. I made it all the way to the sixth grade, and then suddenly it was all over. One day out of the blue, the principal came to my classroom. He said something to my teacher. Together they pulled me out of class and took me to the principal’s office. From there he told me to call my mother. I did, and he then took the phone from me and spoke to her. I really did not understand all that was going on, but I could hear my mother crying on the other end of the telephone. I started to cry too, because she was crying. I was only thirteen years old. The principal told my mother to immediately take me to the Kalihi Receiving Station for lepers because I had the mai Pake. I guess he knew the signs of mai Pake. My face and hands had been swollen for some time before that. But we were poor, so my family didn’t take me to the doctor when the swelling started.

My father came to take me home from school; but instead of taking me to the Kalihi Receiving Station immediately like the principal said they should, my parents took me home. There we all cried. The whole family cried, including my father. The next day my father took me downtown and bought me a new suit. It was my first suit of clothes — they were so nice; I looked good. I had never had clothes like that before because we were poor. Also, where would I have worn those kinds of clothes? But I wore a tie and everything . . . new shoes. My father bought me a complete new outfit. So I wore that suit of clothes to the Kalihi Receiving Station. Even though we were poor, my father said he wanted me to be dressed nicely when I was taken to Kalihi to be declared a leper. They took my picture for the official record of the Board of Health wearing that new suit of clothes. When the picture was taken, my father broke down again and cried. So, I became a leper.

(to be continued tomorrow)

Blessings, Pule & Pono to all!

Fr. Brian, ss.cc.
Priest
Topside Molokai