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|  The
Social Hall walls are covered with posters, paintings, drawings,
newspaper clippings, and wall hangings, all about Father Damien
and Kalaupapa.
We had set the tables up in a square, and optimistically put 18
chairs around them...we ended up with 18 people exactly. We mingled
for a while and had a chance to talk. I enjoyed talking with Pat
about his historical letter collection, and I also got to meet
Danny Hashimoto.
Danny has lived at Kalaupapa since 1942. He delivers the mail
and newspapers. He saw my father and me looking at some of the
gravestones the next day, and came over and showed us some of
the more interesting inscriptions, and talked about some of the
correlations he's drawn from looking at headstones in different
parts of the island. We had been talking for over an hour when
it started raining, so he gave us a ride back to the Visitor's
Quarters in his truck.
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|  Being
an avid reader, he had to clear the newspapers and books off of
his front seat to make room for us. I'd seen his picture in some
of my books about Kalaupapa, and I was so glad he had come to
the party, and that we had a chance to talk.
We all sat down and ate and talked some more, and then it came
time for cake. As Leslie prepared to cut it, the ladies starting
to sing a lovely Hawaiian song. I wish I knew what the song was,
it was so beautiful, and their sweet voices echoed off the walls
and filled the room. When they were finished we asked them to
sing it again. Leslie was deeply moved and thanked them all, telling
them how happy she was to be back home, and then she cut the cake.
It was, in my mind, one of the best cakes ever.
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I
don't know, maybe it was the tropics, or maybe it was a sugar
high (Coke and cake!), but I looked around the room, at these
people: all of them busy living their own unique, involved lives.
And yet here they all were, taking time to honor one person's
desire to reach across an ocean of time and touch a part of
her childhood. I felt buoyed by the compassion and generosity
of the human spirit.
I had the sensation of watching a wish come true
even better than I had ever imagined it.
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