THE VICTIMS OF THE FLU FROM THE SAME FAMILY

MISS ESTHER PAWAI.

MRS. ELIZABETH KELEKOLIO.

MRS. ANNIE KAMEKONA.

THREE LOVED ONES ON THE SAME PATH.

To the Editor of the Kuokoa Newspaper, Sol. Hanohano, Aloha oe:—Please allow me an open space of our favorite to place the story of the words above, so that our relatives, intimates, and friends may know about our three loved ones who have gone on the same path, and have left this life, and it is we, their parents who grieve on this side with pained hearts, distraught and sad with aloha and regret for our children.

Where is Annie? Where too is Kapeka, and where are you O Esther? No word, no answer, nothing at all; it is quiet, they are gone, auwe with aloha and regret!

On the last week of Feb., 1920, the members of our family were overcome with the flu which is spread out here in the Kona districts. Mrs. Annie Pawai Kamekona, Mrs. Elizabeth Pawai Kelekolio, Miss Esther Pawai and Miss Hattie Pawai, Mrs. Keaupuni Pawai, their mother, and John Kama, their esteemed grandfather, leaving me, their mother and our sons-in-law, standing amongst these people laying all about here and there.

We alone were the ones who cared for them from when the illness of my daughters was mild until the illness was very severe upon them. Three of my daughters caught pneumonia, the three older ones and their tutu, leaving their mama and their youngest sibling, Hattie.

That week passed, and the first week of March began; in the first days, the pneumonia hit Elizabeth and Annie hard, and in the early morning of Wednesday, the 3rd, the angel of death came and took the last breath of Elizabeth, and left her cold body for the two of us and the family to look to; we did not let our voices flow out as we Hawaiians usually do, no; but we were grief-stricken within, for there were people suffering from the flu left, and after some hours went by, we waited for the eternal last home for the body, and when it was completed by helping hands; thought returned to those who remained; what were we to do for them?

There was no one who gave assistance with this calamity, for the Board of Health came before and put us under quarantine, along with Kekuewa’s home, for they had the flu there; no one could think of anything to do; they could not come to  help us with this difficulty.

Wednesday passed, and in the early morning of Thursday, that angel of death passed by once more and took the last breath of our first born, Annie, and left her motionless sleeping body. Auwe how heartbreaking!

[I had to stop here. Maybe I will come back to it another time. They were scary times a hundred years ago. Please be careful with sanitation these days. Take care of your ohana.]

(Kuokoa, 4/16/1920, p. 3)

Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, Buke LVIII, Heluu 16, Aoao 3. Aperila 16, 1920.