My Beloved Grandmother Has Gone on the Path of No Return
("Kuu Kuku Aloha Ua Hala I Ke Ala Hoi Ole Mai", Nupepa Kuokoa, November 15, 1912)
Dear editor of the Kuokoa, greetings: Please provide space in the treasure of our nation, the Nupepa Kuokoa, for my burden of sorrow, that you may carry it off through every part of Hawaii so that family and friends will know of the untethering of my grandmother’s life breath to glide gracefully on the path that all living things must travel.
My grandmother Mrs. Kaalani Haupu has departed this life, and here I am grieving in this world, with thoughts of sadness and sorrow for her, weeping with affection, wondering how I will find her again when the hands of death have reached out and snatched away her spirit.
She has left in this world a daughter, Mrs. Alapai Kanuha, as well as many children and grandchildren.
Farewell to my grandmother who has passed on to the path of no return1, leaving me to shoulder the burdens of sadness and sorrow.
I am filled with constant reflections of my grandmother. My grandmother and I were companions of the cool mountains of Kaupo, where the rain makes one hide behind rock walls. What fond memories of this place where we were living. I will no longer see her face, and I will no longer hear her voice. She will no longer tend to my children. What endless thoughts of her. The pounding rain will eventually pass but not my affection for my grandmother.
She was a member of the church of Kaupo.
She left us at 7 in the evening on Saturday, October 12, 1912, at the home of her children. She was over 80 years old.
With fond regards for the young typesetters.
Mournfully,
MRS. M. S. KAWAIAEA.
Wailua, Hana, Maui, Oct. 28, 1912.
Note: The age at death of 82 is an estimate. The 1910 census for Kaupo (dated April 20-21, 1910) lists Haupu's age as 79 years old at that time. In addition, Haupu was identified as 60 years old as of the 1900 census for Hana (dated June 2, 1900), with a birth year of 1840 listed.
- A common poetic saying for death. See entry No. 420 in the book “ʻŌlelo Noʻeau: Hawaiian Proverbs & Poetical Sayings“.