My Beloved Husband Has Gone, Undoing Our Bond

PAULI K. HOSEA IWIULA.

O Kuokoa Newspaper, Aloha to you:—Please extend your patience and allow me space in one of your columns for my parcel of my parent in my youth, and perhaps many of our friends will see it, and our companions in the Lord living from where the sun rises at Kumukahi all the way to where it shimmers into the sea of Lehua.

Pauli Kaoleiokukaiakauilani Hosea Iwiula was born in Kamoiliili¹, Oahu, on the 26th of June, 1862, from the loins of Iwiula (m) and Kapolei (f); according to the history of Iwiula, he was a descendant of the chiefly family of Kamalalawalu of Maui, and of kaukau alii rank in the court of the fathers of kings [Makualii, Makua Alii], Kekuanaoa and Kanaina, and the monarchs of the time; and the line related to Pauahi Kaoleioku Hosea Iwiula’s mother, that being Kapolei, she was closely related to the chiefly blood of Kekaulike Nui of Molokai, and being that Molokai is where Kapolei (f) was born, it is believed by the locals here in Kamoiliili that Hosea Iwiula is a chief for whom this eulogy is for.

While Kapolei was young, following the death of Kahuloa, her first husband, she married the aforementioned Iwiula. At that time, Kapolei’s was regularly a singing teacher for the young chiefly women of those days. And Kamoiliili’s handsome prince and gentleman of the time was Pauli Kaoleioku, the first born of the alii Haumea of the serene lands of Ehu, the land where water lies in the face of the cloud banks [epithets for Kona, Hawaii]. And as what happens when people grow up, there is a craving for the great fish that passes before one’s eyes, and that is perhaps why Kapolei and Pauli Kaoleioku were mixed up together, and Hosea was conceived, a son from the loins of Kapolei, and thus Hosea Iwiula was said to be a child of Pauli, and an alii.

During the days when we lived as man and wife, he became a parent to me, and so also me for him. My dear husband was very skilled in singing, and it was he who always lead the Sunday School classes of Kamoiliili for almost thirty or more years, and he was the elder [luna kahiko] of the Kamoiliili Church for almost twenty-four years and also is a long-time member of the Kawaiahao Church, then he left that position in the hands of Hiram Kaaha who is still there now. Hosea was a member of the leaders of Kawaiahao Church from his branch church of Kamoiliili. During the days when he was the leader of the Sunday School for Kaawili, he assisted his Sunday School students immensely, by clothing them with their uniforms, shoes and hats; he helped the children a lot.

I was joined with him on the 16th of January, 1882, at Kamoiliili, and we had ten children, and six of them are still living: one daughter and five sons; and four of them have gone before and he has gone in search to be with them.

On Tuesday, the 25th of January, he went to Kauai for the building of the home of Sam Kaeo, the Kauai county attorney, which he would be painting; and in the last week of December, the 29th, he returned to Kamoiliili, and joined in to lead the Sunday School class of Kamoiliili at the last quarterly congregational convention of 1911, and on January 25, he went back to Nawiliwili where his job was, and there after a few weeks began a sickness in his body, and it progressed until he passed from me in that unfamiliar land, on April 29, 1912, and he and I travelled over the great Kaieie Channel for here in Honolulu aboard the Malulani on the 30th of April, and my beloved lei, my husband was left at the funeral home of M. E. Silva, and on the following Thursday, he was carried to Kamoiliili, and within this church where the two of us along with the friends of this place would always gather to worship God, his funeral service was held and he was returned to the place of all men, and the saying was fulfilled: “Man goes to his eternal home, and the spirit returns to its maker.” For “He gave and He hath taken away, blessed be the name of Jehovah.”

O Lililehua Rain of Palolo, you shall no more buffet the cheeks of my beloved; and you as well, O Kuahine Rain which treads upon the fringes of the lehua of Manoa, you will no more soak him and his lashes; O Royal Capitol of Honolulu, he shall not see your fairness; and O Shores which I was with my beloved, your rocky banks will never again be glided over by his loving feet, and O Seas of Kaalawai and Keauau where me and my loving husband were as one, you will not see him again passing by with me.

Alas, there is only love for my husband of my youth, my parent of my uneducated days. I am yours, O My Beloved, that did [lueuele?], wandering the streets in tears.

Me with sorrow,

MRS. RAHELA [Rachael] HOSEA.

Kamoiliili, May 11, 1912.

¹Kamoiliili is known today generally as Moiliili.

[I have found no other usages of the word “lueuele”. Unless the newspapers are accurately typescripted, we won’t know if lueuele is a typo, or if it is indeed a word. The more examples of usages and context found, the clearer the meaning of the word will be. Does the acceptance of inaccurate typing indicate that these words are not important?]

(Kuokoa, 5/17/1912, p. 4)

Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, Buke XLVIII, Helu 20, Aoao 4. Mei 17, 1912.