More on George Young

This email from Gary Okada:

Aloha Everyone:

I have been out of touch for a long timeI have just returned home from a long stay, since July (working) at the Kalaupapa Settlement on Molokai.I was very saddened to read about George. The last time I saw him was in 2000 at Ala Moana. I remember him yelling across the lobby out loud going "hey hey Gary, you remember me ? I laughed and said how could anyone not remember you. We talked a while and he had that big unforgetfull smile on his face. Just last year I emailed mysteriously to "Kanalu" on our email list, and I asked, who are you ? As I honestly did not know that was George's Hawaiian name, DUH...........The response I got was a big laugh and who do you think this is Gary ??? Its me GEORGE..........We laughed, talked a bit and I wished him well.I shared with him an incident that happened to my son at the wall where George had gotten injured and I told George that my son got off lucky and had only a partial paralysis and in time he had gotten most of his sensory feeling back. I told George that I could not know the pain he had to endure and the frustration of not being able to physically do things but I could understand it, just watching my own son go through it.George being the way he was just said, "Well you make do and you overcome it in time."

At the Kalaupapa Settlement I met a man (resident) who I got to be good friends with and he told me of hisenduring life's journey as an (outcast) as he put it. He told me that he went from feeling sorry for himself, ashamed and embarrassed all the way to going back to college, graduating and then becoming a teacher at the U of H. in Hawaiian studies and other things.Mind you, This man is also blind with a seeing eye dog in addition to being a leprosy patient with many physical deformities. He told me of a young man that was HIS inspiration, a man that had "lit his fire", someone that made himfeel he could overcome, and he did. When he completed his story and his last words were, I will never forget him, he and I today are the best of friends, his name is George Young, "Kanalu", I was floored.I was in awe. How big our earth and so small our lives that 2 people could actually connect by coincidence or circumstance. I promised him this week, when I left Kalaupapa that I would write to George when I came home and would tell him I met one of his best friends from long ago. I am saddened that I could not do that now, and I am sorry that I will not run into George any more and see that big beaming smile of his.

I guess life is too short................

And this email from Milton Olmos, who sent George a birthday greeting via email earlier this year. This was George's response:

Mahalo Milt,
I really backed into teaching without any intention or deliberate choices being made whatsoever. To do a friend a favor back in 1983, I served as a substitute in two of his classes at UH Manoa. That experience lasted two and half years, he came home, I went off to get the credentials needed to continue teaching something at the college level. I'm so blessed to have been in the right place at the right time that subsequent similar experiences since then have given me back more than the accident in 1969 ever took away. I can say that in all truth with acknowledgment that goes along with it that of course, not to stand on a surfboard, or play my ukulele, or make my family a gourmet meal won't happen with me in the key physical role, then I'm okay.

And watching surfing at the beach makes me smile, listening to Israel Kamakawiwo'ole play his ukulele and sing, and enjoying Sam Choy's cuisine at his Daimond Head restaurant two blocks from my house may be the next best thing and doing all of those special activities myself physically, but the very fact I'm still here is my bottom line. I know God wants me to continue to be a positive influence on others so as long as I'm doing that I feel right with myself.

Mahalo again for the birthday greeting.

George