Family

Lei Mokihana

Today my family back on the Islands celebrated the life of my cousin.
Pete and I drove to town from the ledge in the woods to make the phone call ... it would allow us to talk with 'ohana after the service was pau.

We drove the 12 miles into Belfair and pulled into the parking lot.
I spotted the unearthly brown telltale signs of herbicide.
We moved.

My cousins had gathered for after the service family time, I pressed the loudspeaker button and both Pete and I talked with Mokihana's sons, her brother, her two sisters, a sister in law, and the cousin who read the eulogy I wrote for the service.

My son could not be there, he was off Island teaching lomi lomi (traditional Hawaiian body work)
to a halau hula (school of hula) in Paris. His plans had been made before my cousin's passing.
I know she will say, "Maika`i," to that. All things Hawaiian all the way!

It was like being there, almost.
We are far away and as close as we could get.
Living with MCS is a distancing disease, and there's no getting around it.

What helped today was to hear my cousin say, "Well, at least you folks have had time to stop running for away ... throw the anchor down ... rest for awhile." He truly gets what our life is like, we slept in our car on his front lawn in Kailua on the Windward side of O`ahu
for almost six months during the height of our time of flight and running from the chemicals.

Life is short, precious with all its challenges, deep troughs, sad times and messiness.
In it all there is joy too ... and in the background we could hear the ruckus ... laughter
... some of the best sounds in life, seems to me.

to you tita ... all our aloha,
Mokihana and Pete