Death of George Panila Kamauoha, 1920.

MY DEAR PAPA, HON. G. P. KAMAUOHA, HAS PASSED ON.

GEORGE P. KAMAUOHA.

Mr. Solomon Hanohano, Editor of the Kuokoa Newspaper, Aloha oe—please accept my heavy bundle, aloha for our papa who went afar, George Panila Kamauoha, who left for that eternal world. Place it in an open space of the Kuokoa Newspaper so the family, all the friends, and the public sees this sad news.

I was enjoying myself without any premonition that there would be sad news about my dear papa, and the telephone rang from my elder sister saying that she received sad news by telegraph that papa had passed on to that eternal world.

Auwe, my never-ending aloha for you, O Papa, that I did not witness your last breath and how you looked last, auwe how regretful I am. I could not, for we were separated by the wide ocean; how sad I am thinking of you. The last time I saw my dear papa was last year and that was it for all times. I look here and there to see you once more, but it is only your picture I look at without your actual body, it is at rest for all times, it is gone, his features are lost, his face is hidden to us, his daughters and many grandchildren; his labors are done, he no more will know the hardships of this life, and he has returned with the Lord who created him. It is written in the great book, dust returns to dust; aloha my dear papa.

We have no idea how long our dear papa was left in bed being that he was on Hawaii Island, our land of birth, and the two of us, his children loved dearly by our papa, were here on Kauai, therefore we could not see him, and when we arrived, dust was all we saw. In a letter he last wrote, he said, O Dear child, be patient until this coming April and let’s meet along with my beloved grandchildren, for I received your letter that the Legislature is holding a Special Session that month, being he is a member of the Legislature, and papa is a Senator.

There was no chance for the two of us to see our beloved papa in April; he was snatched quickly away from us and we are left without our parent.

Our beloved Mama had gone first to that world; and from their loins came us children, that being Mrs. Hoakalei Crowell, Mrs. Sarah Kamakau and Mrs. Kaleimomi Waialeale. He married another woman but they had no children and my dear papa took his repose. My beloved elder sister passed on to the world beyond, and not a month thereafter went my beloved papa. Left behind are the two of us and the grandchildren and our Mama and the whole family grieving for him; auwe how sad to think about.

O Kohala, with your Apaapaa wind, no more will you see my dear papa passing upon your streets, and Kapaau, our land of birth where my dear papa and dear mama lived  in their youths and had us, their lei, no more will you see him enjoying his old home of ours and our kupuna who left earlier to that world beyond.

When I was a baby, maybe one year old, we left that loving home in Kapaau, Kohala and went to live in that home in Napoopoo, Kona, the loving home of my dear papa. We lived there until we reached adulthood, and because we got married, we moved to this unfamiliar land.

O Kona of the calm sea of Ehu, no more will you see my dear papa passing by all of your places, and so too our loving home, no more will you  hear his welcoming voice. It will be us, his beloved lei [daughters] and his grandchildren who will go; the far ocean sail to come to this unfamiliar land was nothing to my dear papa, how sad that I will not see you again.

Listen, O Hilo in the Kanilehua Rain, no more will you see my dear papa, and you will no more drench him. The whole of the Island of Hawaii was traversed by by beloved papa from corner to corner, auwe, O Hawaii, island of Keawe, no more will you see my dear papa on your streets. No more will you hear his voice during the voting season when my dear papa would arrive with his running mates all over Hawaii, and so too until the season where he took his rest.

O Honolulu Town, you will no more see my dear papa passing by your various locales, so to the members of the churches of Kawaiahao and Kaumakapili, no more will you see my beloved papa, for I do not know of his position in to Calvinist Church, but all the members of that Church know of his service until he lay in repose.

To all of you, O members of the Legislature, you will no more see my dear papa, and hear his voice. Auwe, my dear papa who has gone afar; the parent of all ethnicities, from those of high stature to those of low stature, everyone was the same to him; from the malihini to the kamaaina, they were all welcomed to our loving home in Napoopoo.

Therefore let it be known to t he family, the friends and the all of the public that the parent of that loving home has gone. When malihini came, everything would be made ready by my dear papa, and all that there would be to do would be to eat.

Your honor, Representative Kalanianaole, you will no more see my dearly beloved papa, your parent and home all during the time you ran as a Representative. During the election season and when candidates were voted for, you went around Hawaii with my dearly beloved papa; aloha for all those place you all went together. There will never again be a parent like my dear papa. When you think about going to Kona, he was a parent and a home for you. So too for all the people, when they decided to go to Kona, they had a home there; but his walls have faded, and by dear papa has gone, the one who made lively the home of ours; but that is the charge of the Lord, and not for us, the children of man.

I will stop here, and I ask the almighty father that he lighten my grief and sadness, along with my older sister, Mrs. Hoakalei Crowell, and our Mama and all the family.

With you, O Solomon Hanohano [Editor of the Kuokoa], goes our final aloha.

With grief for our losing our parent, my dear papa gone afar.

MRS. KALEIMOMI WAIALEALE.

(Kuokoa, 4/23/1920, p. 3)

Kuokoa_4_23_1920_3

Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, Buke LVIII, Helu 17, Aoao 3. Aperila 23, 1920.

Advertisement

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s