Ailing singer Loyal Garner to perform at mall tonight
By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Editor
With her doctor's blessings, entertainer Loyal Garner is going to do what she does best — sing — as a way of combating the colon cancer that has had her out of the limelight recently.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser Independence Day celebration Featuring music and fireworks 7 to 9 tonight (live TV broadcast, on KHON-2, with Trini Kaopuiki) Ala Moana Center Music by Loyal Garner, Henry Kapono, Kalapana, Col÷n, Sistah Robi Kahakalau at the center Fireworks 8:30 p.m., over Magic Island Free Information: 955-9517
"It's been a lousy six months," said Garner, who has spent countless hours in chemotherapy and radiation treatments since January, when she underwent a second surgery to remove recurring cancer tissues. Weary and weak, she was forced to shelve her singing to focus on her recovery.
Loyal Garner with her piano and her grandchildren: from top, 8-year-old Ashley Kupau, 5-year-old Jason and 3-year-old Lanson. Garner has undergone surgery and chemotherapy for cancer that has kept her off stage for some time.
But figuring singing is the best medicine for her, she is checking herself out of sick bay to make her first public appearance this year during Ala Moana Center's Fourth of July celebration tonight. It's kind of her personal Independence Day.
For the show, she is producing both the opening and closing segments with her evening's co-stars Henry Kapono, Kalapana, Colon and Sistah Robi Kahakalau.
"I've had good days and bad days, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now," said Garner. "Singing is healing for me. It keeps me useful. It gets me out of the sick mode. For half a year, I've been letting it rest. Now, I'm out of the pit."
Diagnosed a year and a half ago with colon cancer, she underwent one series of ravaging chemo and radiation treatment, experiencing what so many other cancer patients do: the fear of hair loss, losing some weight, experiencing nausea, coping with diarrhea, feeling helpless and hopeless.
But she recovered and thought she had it all licked. So, some months ago, she put her life back on track, returning to her solo singing gigs and her engagements with the Local Divas, the quartet that also includes Carole Kai, Melveen Leed and Nohelani Cypriano.
But last year, six days before the Divas were to do New Year's shows overseas, she received sobering news: The cancer had reappeared.
"I was at rehearsals when I took the phone call from the doctor — and I cried," said Garner. "I took a deep breath, and asked, 'Why me?' You always say, 'Why me?,' and then you answer, 'Why not me?' As entertainers, we often feel or think we're exempt from everything. But, of course, cancer does not discriminate."
She was told the cancer had appeared in her lymph nodes and abdomen, and she would need to have surgery. Again.
She had to face the procedures and the agony of treatments. Again.
"I didn't tell the girls, until after our overseas shows (Japan and Hong Kong) because I didn't want them to worry," Garner said.
So after returning home last January, she underwent surgery. And started the dreaded chemo treatments in February and March.
In the process, she lost her gall bladder. And her appetite. But she gained a new perspective on her life, a renewed will to live, a remedy to overcome her fear.
"You don't know how often and how much I wanted to give up, and just go," she said.
She was frightened.
She felt horrible.
"I cried," she said. "And my family cried. But when they put the mo'opuna (her hanai grandkids) in front of me, that snapped me back to reality. I can't imagine anyone facing cancer alone."
Carole Kai was a catalyst, nudging Garner to get back to work. "Normally, you leave someone undergoing cancer treatment alone," said Kai, a television producer when she's not performing herself. "But I felt Loyal is driven by art and creativity. So I called her and told her 'I have a job for you ... an opportunity to get your mind off the sickness.' "
The first gig was composing a theme song for the "Jan Ken Po" game show Kai co-produces, with her partner, Dirk Fukushima, in their Hawai'i Stars Presents company. "She didn't want to at first, but she produced a great piece of work, doing the theme in less than day. I challenged her mind."
The next was the Ala Moana Center Fourth show, which Hawai'i Stars Presents is producing. "Naturally, we involved Loyal."
Kai said that although the Divas are anxious to work, they're totally cognizant of Garner's limitations. "But she just is enjoying herself."
Despite having to face a second cancer battle, Garner says she's lucky. She had to cancel her Mother's Day concert this year — a big crowd-pleaser and a primary source of income — because she knew she wouldn't be fit for action by May.
In the meantime, prayers have helped her remain chipper and optimistic, leading up to her re-entry tonight.
And she's pragmatically taking it one day at a time, trying to overcome each little battle in her big health war. "My hair is thin, so I've cut it short. I didn't lose all my hair; I'll use (hair) extensions, if needed. I have very little desire for food; Saltine crackers and saimin are what I crave. But these days, I appreciate and relish the good moments and live through the bad. And I've totally reprioritized my life."
Family, she said, is the most important thing now. Without her hanai 'ohana, she said, she could never have weathered the physical and emotional storms.
"Saying 'I love you' is so important, not just to family but friends," said the Lady of Love. "I do that so often now, because I don't know if I'll have another chance."
Her doctor has not ruled out the chemotherapy, but agreed to let her go for six weeks without treatment so she can recover and readjust.
She's taking a treatment in a pill form. "But no more IV," she said firmly; she hated that.
She would hustle into Straub Hospital, in four-week spurts. "One day a week, you're there for three hours, for very painful chemo ... "You don't feel human until about the sixth day, and on the seventh, you rest — then you're back in the cycle. Four weeks in a row, two weeks off; three cycles like that."
During one of those cycles, she had a gallstone attack, resulting in the removal of her gall bladder.
"Psychologically, this thing gets to you," she said, referring particularly to the lingering odor of the chemicals used in chemotherapy. And comforting foods no longer comfort. In her "down" time, she realized the huge role that music played in her life, that being idle didn't help her situation. "I had forgotten how music is always my best healer and when I listen to what's in my heart, I heal myself," she said.
Even playing the piano is no burden. "When I play, it feels like I never left it. It's like riding a bicycle; once you learn, you never forget. The chords, the energy, the memories — they all come back."
Her visibility will increase over the next few months, Garner said. She committed to joining Leed and others in a Labor Day show at the Waikiki Shell, followed by a Sept. 15 concert on Kaua'i.
She has been taping, with her Divas gang, a TV special, "Local Divas: Behind the Voices," set to air at 8 p.m. July 10 on KHON-2.
And she still wants to complete a CD she started in 1999: "Half done, but lots more to do."
She had a preview taste of what it's like to sing again when she journeyed to Sacramento, Calif., in June to perform. "It was a mixture of fear and joy," she said. "I wasn't strong; I think my mind's well, but the body is slow to respond. I felt so out of breath and my lungs wouldn't move, because I was bedridden so long. But in the end, it was cleansing, purging, and just wonderful. I missed the audience contact during my private hell."
