EVERYONE in Hawaii is talking about the mysterious case of Peter Kema Jr., the cute Hilo tyke who is supposed to turn 7 today. It's one of those stories full of "could ofs," "would ofs" and "should ofs," but the current priority is that Peter Boy is found. The torture of having
missing childrenThe people who love him most, including concerned grandparents Yolanda and James Acol of Kona, are pacing the floor and want to know his fate.
Pray it's not what they think. Pray they learn the truth at all.
Jaylin and Peter Kema Sr. told Big Island police that their son isn't missing, technically. Kema Sr. claims to have handed the boy over to a family friend and lauhala weaver named "Auntie Rose Makuakane" while he was in Honolulu last August looking for work.
But police have been unable to verify that statement. Lauhala weavers haven't heard of such a person. And members of the large Makuakane family don't know of any "Auntie Rose."
No answers there. Just more questions, like how the state could have returned custody of Peter Boy and his siblings to his parents.
The Acols angrily tell reporters that they suspected their grandchildren were victims of abuse.
From 1991-95, in fact, the Acols had custody of their three grandkids. That's partly because in August 1991, then 3-month-old Peter Boy was diagnosed with a broken leg and ribs. In December 1996, the last time the Acols saw him, he had a black eye and his arm was wrapped in a bandage.
The agony of witnessing such injuries is compounded by the angst of not knowing his current whereabouts. Is he dead? Is he alive? Where?
Such is the trauma associated with a missing child -- whether lost in a custody battle, abducted in a messy divorce or lured away by a total stranger.
Locally, people like Francis Walsh of Honolulu still look for their abducted children and continue to jump when the telephone rings. Walsh's daughter, Therese, was spirited away almost eight years ago from the Kokokahi YWCA by her mother, who did not have legal custody.
Nationally, there's the sad tale of Rachael and Lisa Martin, two young women who are in severe denial. Their father, Stephen Fagan, allegedly kidnapped his daughters in 1979 after a nasty divorce with their mother, Barbara Kurth. He changed their identities, moved them from Massachusetts to Florida, and told them that their mom was dead.
Last month, Fagan, 56, was arrested on kidnapping charges, and the long-unsolved crime made national headlines. But Kurth is not experiencing joy at finding her children.
SHE is in a special kind of parental hell. For whatever complex reasons, 23-year-old Rachael and 21-year-old Lisa are defending the actions of their dad and have no interest in meeting their mom. "He was, and is, the best mother, father and friend anyone could ask for," Lisa told the Associated Press.
So Kurth, a cellular biologist at the University of Virginia, can do nothing but wait and hope that someday, they change their minds.
Since love for a child is one of life's strongest bonds, it's agony for the Acols, who yearn for vulnerable Peter Boy to be found. It's also agony for Barbara Kurth, who missed out on her daughters' lives for two long decades. Now that they have been discovered, she is still paying the price for an ex-husband's flight and deception.
Diane Yukihiro Chang's column runs Monday and Friday.
She can be reached by phone at 525-8607, via e-mail at
DianeChang@aol.com, or by fax at 523-7863.