Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 25, Number 7, 1 July 2008 — Be there for your children. Stay healthy. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Be there for your children. Stay healthy.

On the 15th of lune we celebrated Father's Day. Ifs difficult to believe my Dad died 45 years ago (May 1963 at age 41). I had just turned 15 and my brother Ben was 13. Instead of celebrating Father's Day visiting my dad and hstening to him tell stories about the Good 01d Days in Waimea from a rocking chair, I have spent Father's Day for the last 45 years simply remembering the good times my brother and I had with him and the good person that he was. It's the same memories whieh surface year after year. Because he died when we were young, the chapters in my Memory Book are very short but the memories I have of him remain vivid, crystal clear and memorable. "It seemed like only yesterday." Our dad was a decent, good, patient, understanding, hard-working and big-hearted man. He loved Akua, our mom, his family, our cousins, his friends, our town, our neighbors, his work. He was a mahi'ai and a paniolo, a small farmer and small rancher. He also worked construction to help make "ends meet." We had our own little Zoo in our corner of Waimea, as he also loved animals. He had a boar named Duke, a Hereford hull who answered to "Ferdinand" and three dogs, Monty, Muffy and Skippy. It's said, "A dog is a man's best friend." Well he had three "Best Friends." When he eame home from work the dogs would run in circles, first around his car, then around him. He brought out something from deep inside them. They had a special connection to our dad. When they saw him they turned into a huneh of maniacs. If he could have owned an elephant and a giraffe, he would have had two of eaeh. And, he was a "Pied Piper" and loved by many of our cousins. I think what it was, was he had time to give them. And they knew his Aloha for them was real and genuine. A cousin from Washington State emailed me recently and said, "Your dad always had a big heart warming smile whieh I ean still see in my mind's eye." Our cousins also knew when he gave them advice, that he had their best interests at heart. Some of our friends when they were kolohe would have the "living hell" beat out of them by their dads. Child Protective Services was not heard of back then. Our dad never touched us. Maybe because discipline was our mom's department, he felt what she did when we stepped out of line was more than ample. I cannot recall a time when he was angry with someone or about something. Our dad was "Mr. Aloha." Friends, he had many friends. I remember when Honoka'a Sugar went on strike in the late '50s. Some of the workers needed temporary work to get through the strike. Our dad hired a few of them. Waimea back then was a non-union, Republican town and what he

did was a no-no. But he did what he did because for him it was the right thing to do. They were out of work, had families and needed to put food on their tables. In our very large family, he was the go-between between our "Tūtū man" and the rest of the elan, the one who had kuleana for "keeping peaee" and everyone happy. In our church when a minister was asked to leave for whatever reason our dad facilitated the relocation effort. He had a strong work ethic, an ethic passed on to my brother and me. He used to tell us he did not want us to be like him. "Go to school, get an education and a good job." His definition of a "good job" was working in an office. My brother and I have farms. We don't mind rough hands, dirty fingernails and wearing puka jeans because he made both work and working the 'āina fun. Of course, he still is the smartest man I have ever known. He belonged to the Order of Kamehameha. And although he was told by DHHL he was only a quarter Hawaiian based on his mo'okū'auhau he insisted he was Native Hawaiian. He was being treated for tuberculosis in 1962, until shortly before he died in 1963, by the best doctor on our island because he was an army veteran. Based on X-rays, it was thought he had had a relapse of TB. While serving in the Anny in WWII, he contracted TB, was treated for it and given a elean hill of heakh in 1952. Two weeks before he died, our nioni was told by his doctor that he had misdiagnosed our dad's condition. That he was suffering from lung and throat cancer, not TB. That explained his loss of voice and constant fatigue. He was a smoker (White Owl cigars and Camel cigarettes). He also chewed tobacco. Our nioni could have filed a "wrongful death" lawsuit. She chose not to sue because of her Christian ethics and values. She felt our dad had contributed to the heahh issues whieh led to his early and unfortunate passing. She knew the doctor had done the best he could for our dad based on his medical history. She was right on both counts. She could have been bitter and angry but felt his early departure was just part of God's plan for his life and for ours. Our dad had the biggest funeral service in the history of 'lmiola Congregational Church (to 1963, that is). There was standing room only. The sensei from the Hongwanji had a part in the service. Aunty Nona Beamer did an oli. I ean still hear her voice reverberating off of the koa walls of the Church. The sun shone brightly when our dad was laid to rest at age 41 on that crisp Wainiea day in May 1963 in our family cemetery next to his dad, who had died less than a month before at age 88. To our DADs all across Hawai'i, this is my Hope, my Prayer, my Wish for eaeh of you. For the sake of your Families, your Keiki especially. Strive to be Healthy. Live long and fruitful lives. Fill your Homes and Lives with Aloha. Be there for your children. For their birthdays, their soccer, football and basketball games, their first conununions, graduations, their weddings, Christmas, Kūhio Day, Kamehameha Day. Stay Healthy. Be Healthy. Live Healthy. Our families, our children and our Nation need us. S

LEO 'ELELE ■ TRUSTEE MESSAGES —

Rūbert K. Lindsey. Jr. TrustEE, Hawai'i