The Passing of A Great Man.

On the 10th of December, 2008, the world mourned the loss of a great man. No where was the cry louder than from the small quiet community of Kalaupapa.
Richard Marks passed quietly at 11:45PM on December 10th at the hospital in Kalaupapa.

There was a good article in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, one of two local papers to carry the story. The other was the Honolulu Advertiser. Click on the links. There, you can learn of his life. He was a brilliant, funny, man.

I was fortunate enough to know Richard Marks. He was a friend of my fathers and a friend of mine. He was one of a handful of Hansen's Disease patients left on Kalaupapa, the community that developed from the banished Hansen's Disease patients during the late 1800's through the 1940's (FYI: No longer are they called leprosy patients, and "leper" is akin to the worst racial slur you can think of... Think "N" word).

For those who haven't been there, the map below is of the Kalaupapa peninsula on the northern side of Moloka'i.


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As you can see, on three side it's surrounded by rough seas, and on the fourth, you can tell by the shadows, are tall cliffs. The tallest sea cliffs in the world. It is harsh and windswept, a truly isolated place.

Nicole at the top of the Kalaupapa trail. a 5 mile hike that switches back along the cliff. Not an easy hike, but the pay off at the end...

And yet, it's quite possibly the most beautiful place on earth.
To stand anywhere on Kalaupapa and look at the beautiful green cliffs, or out onto the vast ocean, you cannot help but be inspired.

Kaluapapa is one of the quietest places on earth. There is no hum of a city or civilization to be heard. All you can hear are the waves on the beach and the wind in the trees. My dad has said, "I come to Kalaupapa to hear God speak". And in all the silence, you might just be able too.

There is no light pollution so the nights are very dark. So dark, you can see the Milky Way with the naked eye. And the only light to navigate by is the moonlight. On the horizon, you can see the orange glow of light pollution from Honolulu.

Richard Marks has always been part of our family. So much so, we call him "Uncle Richard". He's even one of my brother Matt's godparents. He always had a story to tell or an opinion to share. I was always enthralled listening to him talk about his life and times on Kalaupapa and around the world.

I remember the first time my father took Ray and I to Kalaupapa. I was only thirteen at the time, which is slightly illegal. No one under 16 is allowed on Kalaupapa. But we went anyway and stayed at the "Stone House" at the base of the light house. It was away from the town of Kalaupapa proper, where suspicious eyes might question our age. On our first night there, Uncle Richard joined us for dinner. Because there are no stores there, no restaurants, we had to pack in all our own food for the trip. Our mother had made us fried chicken and rice for dinner. We sat out on the porch over looking the moonlit ocean and the glow of Honolulu in the distance, while Uncle Richard entertained us with stories of Kaluapapa. There was no TV to distract us, and the radio could only get one Hawai'ian music station from "top side".

I had never heard the spooky ghost stories of Kalaupapa before. Uncle Richard told them with such grace and flow, I was mesmerized. He told us the story of how he believes the "Stone House" is haunted.

The Stone House was originally built as the residence for the lighthouse caretakers, back before the lighthouse became automated. The original house is the back half of the house with an addition being built on the front later. The story goes, that one of the caretakers fell off the top of the lighthouse and died. Since he couldn't be buried on Kalaupapa, they had to keep the body somewhere until a doctor could fly in to pronounce his death and it's cause, and then fly him back to Honolulu. So they kept the body in the middle bedroom, for several days.

Now his ghost haunts the middle bedroom. Sometime at night, if you are sleeping in the middle bedroom (and especially if you are a woman) you can be woken up in the middle of the night by pressure on your chest, like someone is sitting on you.

Uncle Richards wife, Auntie Gloria wouldn't even come in the house she's so spooked by it. They've had priests and Kahuna's come to the house and bless it in hopes of removing the spirit, but no one knows if he's still around, waiting for the next person to sleep in his room.

When we got to the house earlier that day, guess where I put my bags... in the middle bedroom. I was so scared after that story, I couldn't finish my chicken. My stomach hurt so much from fright that my dad made me swig Pepto Bismol to help ease the discomfort. That night, Ray and I slept in the living room.

I have been back to Kalaupapa many times since then. And every time, listening to Uncle Richard "talk story" was highlight of the trip. I would actually look forward to our dinners.

The last time I was there, I brought Nicole. We were staying at the "Beach House" that time, Uncle Richard had taken to renting out the "Stone House" to the "Kokua" or the help, people who worked on Kalaupapa but who were not Hansen's Disease patients. The "Beach House" is amazingly enough, right on the one beach on Kalaupapa.

I'm glad Nicole got to experience the magic of Kalaupapa at least once, and to hear Uncle Richard "talk story".

I hope to one day get back there. It won't be the same without Uncle Richard. All I can do is keep his legacy alive by telling his stories (albeit, not as well), and remember him as the amazing human that he was.

God bless you Uncle Richard, I truly miss you.

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