After my sister died back in October 2016, I went through her voluminous papers, trying to identify and salvage those documents that were worth keeping.

Among them were documents containing evidence presented to obtain certificates of Hawaiian birth for my Hawaiian grandmother, Heleualani Eva Cathcart Yonge, and her sister, Helen Kahooilimoku Cathcart McPherson, born 1888 and 1890 respectively. These certificates documented the births of those born during that period of Hawaii history, or under circumstances such as home births, where standard birth certificates were not universal.

A side note. One of those there to support the applications was Jennie Wilson, wife of then-Honolulu Mayor Johnny Wilson. She testified she had been a “schoolmate” the Cathcart sister’s mother, Kina, my great grandmother.

You can view a copy of the documents here.

Both applications, filed in 1948, were certified on behalf of the territory by Albert P. Medeiros. When I spotted that name, I immediately emailed one of my high school classmates, Albert Pavy Medeiros, to find out if this was a relative of his.

And he quickly responded. Yes, it was his dad who signed off on them.

My father issued Hawaiian Birth Certificates for the Secretary of Hawaii when Hawaii was still a territory. It was one of the duties and responsibilities he had working in the Secretaries office which became the Lt. Governors office when Hawaii achieved statehood.

It was one of those “small world” or, in the case of Honolulu, “small town” experiences. It came with a realization of how connected families become in an island community of our relatively small size.

So it was with regret and sorrow that I heard the news this week that my University High School classmate, Pavy, is in hospice care and not expected to live more than a few weeks. Sad news that hits me at different levels, not because we were close, but because our lives intersected over time in ways that reflect something real about our islands.