Our Father, J. B. K. Kamai, Has Passed Away
("Ko Makou Papa, J. B. K. Kamai, Ua Hala", Nupepa Kuokoa, May 28, 1920)
Mr. Editor of the Nupepa Kuokoa, Greetings:—
Please be so kind as to provide space in the columns of the Kuokoa for our dear, never-forgotten father who has left us in this life. What grief!
He left us in the purple predawn twilight of Friday, April 16, 1920, at exactly 5. The angel of death came like a thief and stole the life breath of our beloved father, leaving his cold body for us, his family, to mourn in this burdensome world. What sorrow!
He was born at Kaupo, Maui on February 16, 1864. Therefore, he breathed the cold air of this world for exactly 56 years and 2 months. How sad!
He was a man who steadfastly endured all the hardships in his life for us, his children, as well as our widowed mother and all the family who called on him.
He was a gentleman who carefully tended to his work in order to better his quality of life. He was a gentleman with a wide-open heart and a broad mind.
The illness beset his body for many years. He relentlessly sought out one who could provide relief, but the comfort would be short-lived.
For many months he diligently took a doctor’s medicine to ease the difficulty breathing. We began to have a glimmer of hope that he would recover, but he has left us, his family.
One looks all around, but there is no father, he who brought warmth to the home.
With this short account, we would like to give our endless thanks to the entire family who were with us in those trying moments of unbounded grief for our departed father.
We also would like to express our sincere gratitude to those who provided assistance as well as to those who gave bouquets to adorn the body of our stalwart father who has passed on.
Therefore, we ask the Lord Jesus Christ to receive our prayers, our blessings and our sorrow and grant comfort to us, the family that has lost its patriarch.
With regards to you, Mr. Editor, and the youngsters of your printing press.1
Mournfully,
MRS. J. B. K. KAMAI,
And family.
Kipahulu, Maui, Apr. 10, 1920.
My Beloved Father, J. B. K. Kamai, Has Passed
("Kuu Papa Aloha, J. B. K. Kamai, Ua Hala", Nupepa Kuokoa, June 11, 1920)
Mr. Solomon Hanohano, editor of the Nupepa Kuokoa, Greetings:—Please give consideration to my tearful message of grief regarding the love for my departed father, John Baptize Kamoau Kamai, gone on the path of no return.2 Publish this sad news in available space of the treasure of the nation3 so that it may flash like lightning to inform family, friends and the general public. O my dear departed father!
I4 was relaxing with no idea of the sad fate of my beloved father when my husband came with tearful eyes. When I asked the reason, the answer was that papa had left us. Stunned, I ran around the house, wailing.
What pain in my heart for my dear father who has left on the path of no return. The sorrowful news had come by telephone from my brother in Kahului.
Father, what endless pity that I missed your final breath and countenance. Oh, my father has passed away! I am overcome when I reflect on you, papa! The last time I saw my father’s face was in February. On returning to our home in Kahului, I searched all around in vain for your presence. But all I found was your likeness, not your true form, which was resting for all eternity.
My beloved father has passed away. His face has disappeared. His eyes are concealed from us, his children and numerous grandchildren. His troubles have ended. There will be no more moaning in pain. It is written in the Good Book that dust shall return to dust.5 What sorrow for my father!
My beloved father was born in Kaupo, Maui, on Feb. 16, 1864, from the loins of his father Philip Kamai and mother Kaulalani. There were five children: two boys and three daughters. One of the daughters passed away before the parents, and now my dear father has gone as well.
Our father patiently endured hardship and destitution for the large group that was us, his eleven children—seven boys and four girls.
Two children have passed on, as have two grandchildren, and my beloved father follows along their path.
My dear father left at 5 on April 16.6 My beloved papa spent 56 years and 2 months breathing the cold air of this world before resting on the path of all beings. What sorrow for my father, so open-hearted and filled with kindness. We children and grandchildren were a beloved sight for these two.7 How grieved I am for my father!8
O Kaupo, the homeland of my beloved father, the land famous for the rain that makes one hide behind rock walls, you will no longer see my beloved father.
To serve his family, my father worked diligently for the foreigner Mr. Starkey9 at Kaupo, hauling supplies. After this he worked for Mr. Vieira. When my brothers went to Kipahulu searching for work to provide necessities for us, my dear parents then left their homeland.
My brothers worked in Kipahulu for the sugar plantation.10 We lived on little, and one of our younger siblings left. We became locals in this once-foreign land. In this way my parents persevered until we got our own place in Kipahulu, the land famous for the love-snatching wind.11
My steadfast father went to work on the road during the time of the supervisor Mr. Haia. When Mr. Drummond served as supervisor, my father was promoted to road foreman. He continued in this role until he left us, his children, along with his grandchildren and our dear mother.
O Kipahulu, you will no longer wet the cheeks of my cherished father. What love for all those places we associate with our beloved dad. It is futile to search; my dear father is not there.
I had gone to Honolulu for a trip to Kauai, peaceful in the calm.12 I received a telegram from my dear father that there was no time to lose. I reboarded the ship that evening with my younger siblings Mrs. Abe Kalana and Jacob Kamai, for our home in the backcountry of Kipahulu.
We arrived to find our beloved dad still alive. We stayed for two weeks. He was in good health, so we again boarded a ship for Honolulu. I continued to Kauai for my excursion around that island with Mrs. Ida Long, our frequent traveling companion.
She is a pleasant woman. I have no concerns traveling with her. It was wonderful visiting with the locals in that unfamiliar land to which I had traveled.
After two weeks, I returned to Honolulu. Upon spending a week in Honolulu, I received a letter from my husband that my father was in ill health and so took a ship back home to Kahului.
I arrived with our children,13 leaving behind my Chinese father-in-law.14 In a week, my father was doing better. A month later I again received a call from home that my father was sick. I returned to our beloved home in Kipahulu to see my dear father.
I stayed at his side the entire time he was ailing. However, on the day he left us, his dear children,15 I was not in his presence.
He died on Friday, April 16, and was buried on Saturday, April 17. I boarded a ship home on Tuesday, April 20 with my younger sister Mrs. Abe Kalana. When we arrived, all there was for us to see was the red dirt over my beloved father. What ceaseless regret I feel over my father! We united with our dear mother, but our father was not there to warm the home on the arrival of us children.
Looking at the beloved walls of the house, where we whiled away the time with my dear father, he was not there. He had vanished from our sight. What sorrow!
O Hana, of the rain of the low sky,16 the striding of my beloved father across your earth has ended.
O Keanae of the high waters,17 my dear father will no longer pass by. O Kahului of the rippling seas, the place where I passed the time with my dear father, he will not again step on the sands of your shore.
My parents stayed with me in Kahului to convalesce. Upon recovering, they returned to our beloved home in Kipahulu.
My beloved father and I were well-acquainted with these plains from Kaupo to Kula, plains famous for lava rocks with jagged points like the tentacles of the octopus.18 We knew this place all the way to Makawao, of the chilly Ukiu rain,19 and Maunaolu, the school that my dear father sent me, and now my younger sister, Mrs. Abe Kalana. Oh my dear deceased father!
O Wailuku, of the four waters,20 the place my father roamed in the days of his youth when he was living with the priests, he will no longer step on your soil. O Iao, the place where we rested in comfort under the shady kukui trees, you will no longer see him. How sad we are, we children who have lost our father.
He experienced a great deal of suffering, bemoaning the pain throughout his body. Nevertheless, he continued to work to provide for his family. What a devoted father!
O Oahu, where the rain rattles the roofs, and with its finely decorated town, my dear father will no longer pass along your streets. This was the land that my dear father came to know well when he worked with the monarchy: Queen Emma, King Kalakaua and Kunuiakea. It was Kunuiakea that he resided with and became a steward for. In this land was where he found his companion, our dear mother, Beke Kauhanenuihonookawailani.21
They spent 38 years in love’s embrace in the sacred covenant of marriage until the golden chain that bound them together was broken.
They lived together in contentment and did not quarrel. They were joined together on Aug. 11, 1882.
O Kaalawai, where my dear father rested on your shores, you will not see him again. Vanished, gone are the faces of the clouds. Alas for my father who will never return!
In looking for the love of my father, it is gone. Tears fall and cannot be stopped. My father adored his travels around Oahu, the subject of the song presented here:
Oahu is adorned with ilima lei,
Like a feathered cape upon the shoulders,
Beloved are the places my dear father travels.
For those who were moved to visit my father’s house in Kipahulu, the door was open since my dear mother is still living there. But its walls had faded, since my dear father had disappeared.
What ceaseless sorrow I have for you! We will no longer hear his professions of love for us, his children.22
With tears tracing lines from my eyelashes, I ask the Almighty Father to provide solace for the sorrowful thoughts besetting me, my dear mother, her children and the grandchildren who have lost a father and grandfather.
I would like to send my endless gratitude to all the people who gathered with their gifts of flowers for my dear father until his final journey.
The same week that I was at our home in Kipahulu, my father-in-law passed away. What sorrow for my dear one who became a traveling companion of my father! I went for that unfortunate event there, to see the red dirt of the grave, and returned to see the red dirt of the grave here. How the heart aches!
There was just one week separating these events, when my father-in-law passed.
We would like to acknowledge all those who served as pallbearers for my Chinese father23 as well as the people who attended his final journey and their gifts of flowers.
I will cease my mournful reflections here. With affection for you, Solomon Hanohano, and the youths of your printing press.
We below being the family filled with grief over the loss of our dear father.
MRS. J. B. K. KAMAI,
MR. & MRS. S. LAKE,
MR. & MRS. ABE KALANA,
PHILIP KAMAI,
JOSEPH KAMAI,
JOHN KAMAI,
JACOB KAMAI,
ABE KAMAI,
MISS MARIA KAMAI,
JOHNNY KAMAI.
- The typesetters.
- A common poetic saying for death. See entry No. 420 in the book “ʻŌlelo Noʻeau: Hawaiian Proverbs & Poetical Sayings“.
- A common poetic name for the Nupepa Kuokoa.
- The writer of this obituary is Kamai’s daughter Anna.
- Genesis 3:19.
- 5 a.m., per the obituary above.
- The parents.
- The original sentence here reads: “Auwe kuu paumaele no kuu papa e”. The translation here assumes that paumaele (dirty) is a spelling error for paiauma (to grieve).
- William Starkey, a rancher and teacher in Kaupo.
- Kaeleku Sugar Co.
- A poetic name for Kipahulu. See entry No. 1463 in “ʻŌlelo Noʻeau”.
- A poetic saying for Kauai. See entry No. 2060 in “ʻŌlelo Noʻeau”.
- Lei in the original article.
- The name of the writer’s husband (Stephen Lake) does not suggest Chinese ancestry. However, this is confirmed in 1910 census records, where China is recorded as the birthplace of Stephen Lake’s father.
- Lei in the original article.
- A poetic name for Hana. See entry No. 1578 in “ʻŌlelo Noʻeau”.
- A poetic name for Keanae. See entry No. 2447 in “ʻŌlelo Noʻeau”.
- See entry No. 1911 in “ʻŌlelo Noʻeau” for an alternate translation and story of the preceding phrase
- A poetic name for Makawao. See entry No. 1602 in “ʻŌlelo Noʻeau”.
- A poetic name for the region of central Maui that includes Waikapu, Wailuku, Waiehu and Waihee. See entry No. 2300 in “ʻŌlelo Noʻeau”.
- The wife of the deceased was known by many names, including Elizabeth Isabella Peke on the birth certificate for one of their children.
- Lei in the original article.
- Father-in-law.
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