A Kona man is coming home, after beginning his true path in life.
He’d attended college, found joy in his work and was looking over the next hill to a brighter horizon.
“It seemed he finally found his path in caregiving,” said his father.
And then an ill-timed visit to a friend’s place ended his path.
Gabriel Adarme, 26, recently of Edmond, Okla., was attending the University of Central Oklahoma to become a registered nurse. He’d realized this was his passion recently, and committed himself to the effort, his parents said.
His trip had taken an erratic course to that point, his parents said, as if he couldn’t find the right path.
He graduated from Kealakehe High School in 2007 and began working as a prep chef at Hayashi’s and staff at Tihati Production.
He loved blowing the conch shell for the performance and being around the musicians, his mother said.
Adarme went to school in Alaska before returning to the islands. He worked in his father’s business of Big Island Masonry for a time as a laborer before heading to school in Las Vegas.
There he didn’t find his path, his mother said, and he returned to the islands.
Finally he decided to try some of the footsteps of his older brother and sister — becoming a certified nursing assistant.
And at that point his passion awoke as he was working in an assisted living home, his mother said.
He was frustrated that other employees considered it simply a job, she said, and would spend time with the patients. He spoke with them, joked with them and played his ukulele for them.
She’s still receiving calls from the families of people there remembering how compassionate he was to their loved ones.
He decided to follow his sister to UCO and join her in studying to become a nurse.
The next planned stop was graduation, then to Kona Community Hospital to work as a nurse. It had a symmetry, his mother said, as that was where he was born.
His path ended on July 10. He was at a friend’s apartment, according to police, when Gabe Allen Wainscott entered the apartment.
He was looking for resident Trevor Mason Peck, who was in jail on drug charges, according to police.
He held Adarme and the two other people hostage until Adarme got up, went into the kitchen and tried to call 911.
The suspect left his seat and stabbed Adarme repeatedly, but Adarme’s actions allowed the other two people to escape, police said.
Adarme spent much of his life quoting verses from the Bible, his mother said.
One his parents feel applied to him throughout his life was John 15:13, which reads “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”
For Adarme, that verse became literal.
Adarme died at the scene and Wainscott was arrested shortly afterwards. He is now charged with murder in the first degree and kidnapping.
His Oklahoma family held a wake for him on July 18. Local media reports about 100 people were at the wake.
“He was one of those people that you wanted in your life,” said Kyle Walker, Adarme’s neighbor told Oklahoma News 9.
The GoFundMe “Take Gabe home” to bring his body back to Hawaii raised $17,150, above the $10,500 requested by the family.
He is survived by his 6-year-old son, Azreal; brother, Isaiah; sister, Mariah Kennemer; and parents, Brenda and Rupert Adarme.
There will be a celebration of life from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Aug. 9 at the Keauhou Canoe Club Halau.