It was at St. Mark’s All Saints Day service on Friday night when I heard the news. Oh, I expected and heard the name of Jeff Lilley, the long-time pastor of the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, who died suddenly on October 13th just before the service.

But what was a total shock was hearing the name of Mother Jodene Hawkins, the former priest-in-charge and rector of St. Elizabeth’s Episcopal Church, where I was the parish administrator for 12 years. I worked with Mother Jodene for five of those years, and had the opportunity to take many, many photos of her.

As former Senior Warden Arleen Young wrote on Facebook: Jodene was a champion who was the phoenix that brought St. Elizabeth’s from the ashes. We will always remember her infectious smile and kindness. Your family will always be in our hearts.

When I first came to work at St. E’s, there were no more than 50 people in attendance on a Sunday morning. In no time at all, I was printing 75 bulletins, and then 100, and when I retired in 2015, it was not unusual to have more than 200 people at worship.

Stuart Ching, the person who first contacted me after I applied for the St. Elizabeth’s parish administrator job, wrote: Your mother was a truly wonderful woman, and a kind and compassionate priest. She was well loved by everyone at St. Elizabeth’s. She will be dearly missed. My condolences to you, Kit, and all your family.

And choir director, Ajaon Chen, wrote: Mother Jodene is the one who hired me to work with her at St.E. She gave so much support to my kids and myself. 

It was not until this morning when I was checking my Facebook posts that I saw what Jodene’s daughter, Jennifer, wrote:

Life can change so quickly. 9/29 my parents came to stay with us after an ER visit on Maui, which provided mom a “presumed” pancreatic cancer diagnosis. 10/11 Fred Hutch confirmed the news. 10/30 mom passed peacefully with her husband of 59 years, Kevin, Phil and I holding her hands.

The amount of love and support from our family and friends has been astonishing. A massive thank you to my big brother Phil, Aunt Jill and Aunt Michele for pulling many all-nighters to ensure mom had her meds every 4 hours and would have family by her side at all times. Thank you Jodean and Brian for the fridge full of dinners and breakfast. It truly took a village over the past month, and we have a great village.

I think I can safely say that Mother Jodene saved my life! In 2008, when I was complaining to her about having suffered headaches every day for a year and a half, but then mentioning that my brother had recently been diagnosed with a brain tumor, she insisted that I call my doctor, right there and then— and she even stayed by my desk to make sure I did it. Wouldn’t you know, after explaining the need for an appointment, the doctor then said to me, “Can you come into the office in the next fifteen minutes!” and Jodene had done her job. That examination by Dr. Pang lasted an hour, followed by a CAT scan and an MRI, all to prove that indeed, I had a brain tumor also. A couple of weeks later, the tumor was successfully resected, and I have suffered absolutely no ill effects from a five-hour craniotomy (having my head cut open!)

Who knows what would have happened had Jodene not insisted that I call the doctor? I might not be here today writing a blog post!

Thank you, Jodene, for all you did for me and for St. Elizabeth’s.