KAILUA-KONA — Driving to Waimea with her Aunty Elizabeth Maluihi Lee was always a learning opportunity for Kaulu Amaral.
KAILUA-KONA — Driving to Waimea with her Aunty Elizabeth Maluihi Lee was always a learning opportunity for Kaulu Amaral.
Traveling along the mauka road, Amaral said, Lee often pointed out the mountains and the weather, telling Amaral the Hawaiian names for the island’s features.
“There was a story for everything and how it got its name,” Amaral said Thursday.
During one drive in early June, Amaral said, they came across a heavy fog with a light mist. “She says ‘You see what this is? You see the light mist that comes through?’” Amaral said. Lee called it uhiwai.
It was Amaral’s last drive with Lee, one that was characteristic of Lee’s spirit and energy.
Lee died Tuesday in Kohanaiki.
Throughout her 87 years, Lee worked to perpetuate Hawaiian language and culture. She was also a distinguished lauhala weaver, earning recognition from institutions including the Bishop Museum.
Raised in Kalaoa in the Kohanaiki Ahupuaa, Lee first learned to weave lauhala at age 6 as a way to help her family make ends meet. Her family would then barter their lauhala hats, trading them “for whatever they needed,” said Terri Lee, Elizabeth’s daughter-in law.
Elizabeth left school after one year at Konawaena High School, which prohibited children from speaking Hawaiian, the only language spoken at her home.
She picked up lauhala weaving full-time, honing the craft that would later earn her high accolades.
Throughout her life, she maintained a kind, welcoming spirit.
“She just exuded aloha,” said Terri Lee of the first time she met the woman who would become her mother-in-law. “She just welcomed me in and embraced me right away.”
It was around that same time, Amaral first met Elizabeth on family camping trips. Amaral said their families regularly camped together, taking trips to Makalawena, Kiholo and elsewhere. Everyone, Amaral said, looked forward to Aunty Elizabeth’s cooking, such as her linalina pancakes.
“Once we could smell her pancakes, we were all up,” she said.
In 1993, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs named Elizabeth a “living treasure.”
Two years later, she started Ka Ulu Lauhala O Kona with her niece. The organization was founded to preserve and perpetuate lauhala weaving.
“It was a dying art,” said Barbara Kossow. “She wanted to revive the weaving and get people interested again.” Kossow is the secretary of Ka Ulu Lauhala O Kona and a close friend of Elizabeth Lee.
Despite her accolades, Elizabeth remained humble, said Kossow.
“Her saying was always ‘The people made me who I am,’” Kossow said. “And I would just say to her ‘It’s all you. ‘Cause you’re special.’”
Over time, Elizabeth and Kossow’s relationship grew closer. When Kossow’s mother died eight years ago, Aunty Elizabeth was there for support.
“She was my best friend,” Kossow said. “She was like another mom.”
Kossow and Amaral became her hanai daughters, her “Kohala girls” Amaral said, something she considered an honor.
“I thought I heard her incorrectly,” she said of the first time Elizabeth Lee used the term. “Hearing her refer to Barbara Kossow and me as her ‘hanai daughters from Kohala’ made me feel so humbled and grounded.”
Elizabeth Lee’s family also remembered her spirit.
“She loved to go holoholo,” said Terri Lee, Elizabeth’s daughter-in-law. “Anybody she could get in a car with, she would go riding.”
“She had an amazing amount of energy,” Terri added.
Terri recalled Elizabeth’s fondness for ice cream and root beer as well as the times she would pause to take in nature by looking for shapes in clouds and watching the sun set.
“She would make us take the time in a busy moment just to take a look,” Terri said. “It was just life with her daily. To have a mother in law like that was amazing.”
Amaral said her aunty was “so full of joy and inspirational.”
“I just loved spending time with her,” she said.
On June 28, Amaral drove once more to Waimea, this time to visit Elizabeth Lee at the North Hawaii Community Hospital.
The hospital room was full of 20 dancers, performing for Elizabeth, who joined in by singing.
Amaral said she left the hospital “feeling wonderful.”
As she stepped out its doors, she noticed something familiar about the weather: a heavy fog with a light mist.
“‘Oh my goodness,’” she recalled thinking. “This is the uhiwai.”
“You don’t notice these things until they’re brought to your attention by the kupuna,” she said.
Services for Elizabeth Maluihi Lee are scheduled Aug. 28 at Mokuaikaua Church in Kailua-Kona. Visitation starts at 1:30 p.m.