CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@ STARBULLETIN.COM
Anela Florendo cared for her son, Iokona Florendo, yesterday at the Queen's Medical Center.
The isles' first baby of 2004
honors a dad lost in a crash
After his mother labored for three days, the first baby born in the new year in Hawaii entered the world at 1:55 a.m. yesterday at the Queen's Medical Center.
CORRECTION
Saturday, Jan. 3, 2004>> Iokona Florendo was born at 1:53 a.m. New Year's Day and weighed 8 pounds 12 ounces. A Page 1 story yesterday said he was born at 1:55 a.m. and weighed 8 pounds 20 ounces.
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin strives to make its news report fair and accurate. If you have a question or comment about news coverage, call Editor Frank Bridgewater at 529-4791 or email him at fbridgewater@starbulletin.com.Iokona Kawaiwaiolalani Florendo, weighing in at 8 pounds, 20 ounces, was named after his father, Jordan, who died May 23 on Molokai when his Jeep Cherokee flipped over. Thrown from the vehicle, he was killed instantly.
"Yes, Iokona is Jordan in Hawaiian," said Anela Florendo, 25, as she smiled at her son, who slept cradled in her right arm despite the noise of reporters' questions and the commotion of photographers at the foot of their hospital bed, elbowing one another for a clear shot.
Florendo adjusted the hand-knit blue cap on her son's head and said: "His middle name is the Hawaiian for 'precious gift of life from heaven.' Because that is what he is."
Florendo's mother, Opuulani Albino, who never left her side during the worst parts of the long labor, said: "That's his name because Jordan left this child before he passed away. It's his gift to her."
Florendo, a part-time cashier for Coffees of Hawaii, was about four months pregnant when her husband died. Jordan was a landscaper who loved to fish and taught Florendo to dive and catch fish with a spear.
Florendo and her son, Iokepa Albino, 6, flew in from their home on Molokai Dec. 5 so that she could deliver at Queen's because she knew she would have a difficult labor as she did with her first son.
Iokepa, who smiled bashfully at what he clearly thought were dumb questions from reporters, did not want to leave his mother alone at the hospital, said Albino. From Monday until an aunt took him away before the birth, Iokepa was either fidgeting in her room or roaming the halls talking to hospital staff and visitors.
"Ever since his father died, he can't leave his mother. He is afraid she will go away and never come back just like his father," said Albino, who shares her home with her daughter and grandson.
Albino said Iokepa is excited about having a baby brother and has been talking to him through his mother's stomach.
"He said he didn't want a girl because girls scratch and pinch and cry," she said.
As reporters and relatives crammed into the hospital room, Iokepa hovered by his mother's bed, grinning, and from time to time tentatively reached out to touch the blue cap on his little brother's head.
"Yes. I'm going to learn to change diapers," said Iokepa.
And a voice from a roomful of aunties: "We're gonna get him trained."
