Monday, May 24, 2010

An Overflow


This post is late. I'm sorry. But I feel like I should express my thoughts. These two lovely people are my Aunt Sondee and Uncle Ron. My dear Uncle Ronald Keau Kalama passed away on May 7, 2010.

To be frank, I've been having a hard time with this.

Ron was my dad's younger cousin. So in Polynesian families, they were like brothers and Ron was my uncle.

Uncle Ron had the most beautiful, big, FULL voice that I'd ever heard and I've listened to a lot of voices in my lifetime. If you never heard it, consider yourself unlucky.

Not only was he this wonderful, loving man but he (and Sond) rescued me from a painfully boring family reunion in Hawaii. Ron, Sondee, Nolan, Jamie Kuulei and I escaped and had one of the best vacations I've ever been on!

Instead of classes and workshops on food storage and family history (no offense to anyone out there) we spent our days snorkeling, eating shaved ice, surfing and other typical things that you could imagine in a Hawaiian Vacation.

I'm so grateful that families can be together forever.
I miss him.
It sounds so trite but I don't know how else to describe it on a blog.

His funeral service was beautiful. It was a day filled with music which seemed so fitting and I was so grateful for that.

How you ever felt so full of emotion that the words escape you?
That's how I felt.
The words escaped me but the music didn't.

While we sang "Aloha Oe", I found myself expressing everything I wanted to say.

After we'd finished, the air was thick with grief.
That grief overflowed into "Hawai'i Aloha"
More songs followed, each as heartfelt as the next.

It was a beautiful tribute to my Uncle Ron.
I'm grateful to have known him.

I know that he and Sondee will be together forever.
And I will be able to hear his wonderful voice sing again!

3 comments:

Nicole said...

I'm so sorry to hear about your uncle. While the gospel helps put everything in perspective and helps ease the pain a little, it's still really hard to lose a loved one. It IS hard to put something like that into words, but I think I can fully understand what you were trying to say but couldn't. I'm very sorry for your family's loss. Hang in there. You have lots of friends and family that care for you and love you that can help you through this tough time.

Robnz Fam said...

I'm so sorry for your loss, and for your family's loss as well. The gospel is such a treasure to have, especially to help us through the hardest emotional roller coasters we will face in life. Your family will be in our prayers Katey!

Lori said...

It sounds like you had such a good relationship with him! That's something to be so grateful for. Heavenly Father really does bless us with amazing people in our lives. I hope you guys are liking California and all that it brings! Change is awesome. Thanks for always being so happy and fun to get to know.