Patriotic lights
| • | Lighting your way |
By Wanda A. Adams
Assistant Features Editor
For 20 years, nothing has kept Mrs. Vic Carvalho Sr. from setting up her home's Christmas lights. Her Waipahu neighbors have come to expect the lavish display, and she never wanted to let them down.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
This year, however, she told neighbors she was leaving the house dark during the holidays; the Carvalhos didn't feel much like celebrating after the events of Sept. 11.
The Vares family Christmas lights display this year includes American symbols to honor those lost on Sept. 11.
That was until she heard that singer Loyal Garner, who died of cancer Nov. 15, had told the other members of the Local Divas musical group that their Nov. 29 show must go on, even if "the Lady of Love" couldn't be with them.
"I thought, if she can fight to the bitter end, then who are we to go in the corner and say, 'There's no Christmas,'" Carvalho said.
So the lights went on as always Dec. 1 at the Carvalho house, but with some significant additions: a lighted flag, signs that declare "These Colors Won't Run" and "United We Stand" and lots of red, white and blue bows.
The Carvalho home is among many displays included in our annual O'ahu lights list (see Page 3) that have taken on a patriotic coloration this season, the first Christmas after America's view of the world was changed forever. Altogether, about one of five of the lights displays we're listing have added a red-white-and-blue touch this year.
Raphael Vares has completed his display on Honolulu's Hauoli Street, despite all but getting washed out in the heavy rains of Nov. 27-28, when he was in the midst of setting up the 10,000-plus lights and capering characters.
Vares was determined to honor the family tradition, he said, in part to remember all the people who were killed or hurt in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. So alongside the trademark paniolo with the giant shaka, you'll see Uncle Sam, an American flag, the Statue of Liberty, the Liberty Bell — just about every symbol of America Vares could imagine.
Last year, Vares got some media attention after thieves stole the reindeer and sleigh out of his yard, but that didn't stop him from enjoying the looks on the faces of the people who came by. "Even if it's a negative, we turn it into a positive," he said.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
Vares and his wife, Stanette, kept smiling after the theft, and they're doing that now even though there's hurt inside, too: "It's a lot different this year because of the Sept. 11 tragedy ... It has more meaning this year for everyone. We all are happy to be here to celebrate together," he said.
The Mauhili family’s 5-by-8-foot American flag is made from lights and colored stripes.
They are aware, as is the Mauhili family in Kane'ohe, that there are families elsewhere whose holidays will never be the same.
The Mauhilis' annual lights display began as a memorial to Eugene Mauhili Sr., who was cut down by a heart attack nine years ago. Eugene and Judy Mauhili used to decorate their home elaborately every Christmas, with an immense tree on the lanai, tiny houses and a "snow mountain," dolls and trains. The year after his death, Judy Mauhili didn't have the heart to decorate. But the following year her son, Ernest Jr., who works at a plumbing firm and is pretty handy with tools, suggested they revive the decorating tradition — only outside, this time, "for Daddy."
Now the display is for others, too: the families affected by the tragedy of Sept. 11, government officials and the military, who are trying to prevent it from happening again, Judy Mauhili said.
Eugene Mauhili Jr. labored for weeks on a 5-by-8-foot American flag wall sign made from lights and colored stripes; above it, spelled out in lights, is the legend "U.S.A."
Judy Mauhili said the tradition of decorating her home has become a focal point of the holiday for her three children — two daughters in addition to Eugene Jr. — and four grandchildren. Eugene Jr., who she characterized as a perfectionist determined to get it right, "is the buyer," she said, "and I'm the banker. Every year, we're adding, adding. He calls me from Sears and tells me what he wants and I say, 'Oooh, expensive. Okay, buy 'em.'"
This proud mother and grandmother is filled this year with a new gratitude that all her children are healthy, that all still have jobs.
"This Thanksgiving was the first time I came out and said how thankful I was for all the blessings we have," she said. Three of her four grandchildren are old enough to understand what her son calls her little "sermons"; this one was about how important it was to her to be able to sit at a table with them and see the smiles on their faces.
Judy Mauhili recalled how profoundly she was changed by the unexpected death of her husband; her heart goes out to others who suffered equally sudden and shocking losses this year. But she also sees a positive outcome.
"It's a shame that it took something like this to make the country come together, to make the people realize what they have been taking for granted," she said. "I can say this, because I know I have taken things for granted."
