It was a year ago today that my sister succumbed to cancer at her home in Honolulu after a six-month illness. She was 73.

Meda and I were walking on the beach that morning when I got the call from the hospice nurse at about 6:45 a.m., just minutes after she passed away.

Until her last few days, Bonnie planned to get well enough to fly to California, where she could be close to more friends and family. We could see that this transfer wasn’t going to happen, but Bonnie held fast to that dream.

In her final days, she was visited by friends from the Daughters of Hawai‘i, who filled her room with song, and an old friend, Malcolm Naea Chun, who brought her spiritual comfort.

Here’s a photo taken around 1968. Bonnie and her first husband, Larry Lamont; their daughter, Christie; and James McPherson, who we knew as Uncle Mac. His wife, Helen, was our grandmother’s sister.

Larry died last week in California. He and Bonnie divorced decades ago. Uncle Mac died in the early 1970s at about 92, if I recall correctly. And Christie is a longtime resident of Seattle.

L-R: Uncle Mac, James McPherson, who was married to our grandmother’s sister; Bonnie, Christie, and Larry Lamont, Bonnie’s first husband. Taken about 1968 during a visit to Hawai‘i.