KEAUHOU — Under sunny skies and steps away from the waters of Keauhou Bay, about two dozen people joined hands and shared prayers, oli and stories in support of Billy Kenoi and the people of Hawaii.
“In everything he did, he spoke aloha,” said Michelle Kaulumahiehie Amaral. “So this was a perfect opportunity to be here to pray for him, to lift him up with aloha.”
The event, hosted by the Keauhou Canoe Club, was one of several planned locally on the island, on the mainland, in Europe and in Japan.
Roberta Wong Murray, one of the organizers of Saturday’s event, said when the prayer would start at noon, Hawaii time, 40 dancers would simultaneously perform in Japan.
Kenoi, who was Hawaii County’s mayor from 2008-16, was diagnosed in late 2015 with myelofibrosis, a rare chronic leukemia. Kenoi underwent a bone marrow transplant and, in late March, announced the cancer had returned and he would undergo chemotherapy and treatment over the next month.
Many of those who attended Saturday’s prayer spoke of Kenoi’s aloha.
“He has so much aloha,” Murray said. “He’s a man with a big heart, a big, big heart, and my heart goes out to him now and his family, of course.”
Murray said after her husband was diagnosed with ALS, she started organizing with several people whose spouses also had ALS to set up a chapter of the ALS Association.
In 2013, they spearheaded their first walk at Kapiolani Park in Honolulu, she said, and at that first walk, Kenoi came and showed his support.
“He had so much aloha in his heart, because one of his kids’ soccer coaches also had ALS,” Murray said. “So he had so much compassion, just real compassion and aloha, for people whose stories were impacted by medical conditions.”
During the event, attendees shared prayers and stories about Kenoi, while also offering up prayers for communities affected by the rains and flooding in Kauai as well as the lava in Leilani Estates.
“It’s not only him, it’s kakou; it’s for everybody, and that we all need to lift each other up in prayer,” said Amaral.
Amaral chanted “Oli Aloha,” which speaks about “the fruits of the aloha spirit,” she said, creating an acronym out of the word aloha: akahai, lokahi, oluolu, haahaa and ahonui — kindness, unity, pleasantness, humility and patience, respectively.
“Aloha prevails,” she said. “Aloha is the key to everything and so it’s always beautiful to greet each other with aloha, and with aloha, you can never go wrong, right? There is no ‘wrong’ to aloha.”
And for Wally Lau, who was Kenoi’s managing director, the day was also “about malama.”
“It’s those values of caring,” he said. “It’s about respecting each other and listening to each other.”
And like the others, Lau too said the day was an opportunity to send prayers and good spirits to people throughout the state.
“We came here to malama Billy, to show our aloha and care for him, but he would say ‘It’s not about me. It’s about caring for everybody, pray for everybody,’” he said. “It’s our kuleana, it’s our responsibility, just to share that caring — share that caring with other people.”