As I reach out to extend to you wishes for all things good and beautiful this holiday season, I acknowledge that it has indeed been a challenging year for me personally and for many of you whom I’m in touch with on various social media platforms but there are many other friends whom I don’t hear from but want to stay connected. 

As many of you know, the August 8, 2023 fires on Maui affected thousands of residents who lost their homes, jobs and family members and completely destroyed the town of Lahaina, long a go-to destination for thousands of tourists who flock here every year for the beauty and enjoyment of island life. Personally, the apartment complex where I lived was totally destroyed and eight senior-neighbors of mine lost their lives. I lost everything including my two fur babies! There were no siren alarms, no warning knocks on doors, no fire trucks nor police presence. We were on our own and had no idea how extensive the fire was or would become as we left our homes and began searching for ways to get out of a town on fire. Instead of escaping, we became trapped inside the inferno that engulfed and consumed Lahaina within hours. Traffic stalled in the streets as black smoke turned the sky black and buildings started catching on fire! People began exiting their cars and walking or jumping into the ocean. After my three failed attempts to get out of the burning inferno in my car, I no longer knew what to do. All the streets had become un-passable because of downed, on-fire telephone poles and trees blocking the way.
My short video that went viral after some major networks picked it up.

I began weighing out numerous options: Should I stay in my car in the parking lot where I was first stranded? How much longer would my AC keep going since the car windows were already hot to the touch? What about smoke inhalation that could choke me to death? I paused, took a deep breath and said out loud, “I don’t know if you’re listening Angels, but I don’t know what to do and I don’t want to die here in this damn parking lot next to f–king Food-land.” After a few quiet minutes, the response came, “Try one more time. You can make it.” And so I did! I drove over blazing downed telephone poles and trees like I was some Amazon Fire Goddess in her fire-resistant mobile!! I finally made it to the upper road outside Lahaina where I joined hundreds of other vehicles that had stopped to look back at our smokey, on-fire town of Lahaina.

That was August 8, 2023. Since then I have lived in two friends’ homes, in a hotel, and finally to a lovely ohana/casita in a beautiful part of Maui where I have lived for the past two years. My lease is up the end of December and I’ll be moving back to Kaanapali area past the still-fire-ridden Lahaina into a sweet little apartment with the fur baby I adopted last year. The wrinkle in this move, and the challenge, is what happened to me this past summer when a second brush with death came my way, creating another liminal space between life and death.

In June, I was admitted to the hospital for an emergency colon surgery that removed a cancerous mass from my intestine. To heighten the drama, I added in a nasty case of Shingles and extreme anemia requiring three blood transfusions. When I was released after three-and-a-half weeks, I had lost 40 lbs and had a recovery plan of learning how to walk, eat, shower and go to the bathroom again without diapers! A miracle—and there were many!—my son David, estranged from family for almost 20 years, flew over from Texas and stayed with Stella Kitty and helped relieve his sister Suzanne with some of the hospital visits and other care-giving chores when I came home from the hospital! Angels on overtime duty!

I’m still in recovery with C-scans every few months and a few other health things to keep track of. But I’m still here and happy to be alive! I am nothing, if not a determined ole crone who loves life and wants to stick around to add her two cents to the surreal situation in the unfolding story of America, the World and to the Planet!

I am blessed to have had friends, family, strangers and super health-care folks to care for me in so many ways during these dramatic events. I have learned that in these challenging times we’re all living in, our secret power is to become aware and acknowledge that we’re all in this together…that we grow, love and create beauty and justice as a community of beings who are pulling for each other to live another day, wanting others to be happy, healthy and joyful. This awareness of our “kueana”—a Hawaiian word meaning to take responsibility for the land and each other—doesn’t just happen. We have to choose it; we have to recognize that this is our time to come together as community and with that intention we know we can create a world that supports, cares for and blesses us all.
Thank you all for being in my life; for being the people with whom I’ve shared some part of life with; and for helping me to grow and become the best “me” possible, so far! May we continue to be blessings in each other’s lives, helping each other to thrive and become the radiant light beings we always knew we were—Star Beings.

With all the warmth of Aloha!

Marjorie StClair