Man with Alzheimer's still missing
By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer
Anxiety builds as Jessie Kubo reaches for the ringing telephone next to the sofa in her eighth-floor Imperial Plaza condominium.
But the caller is Patrick Sarzak, her Pupukea tenant. It is not Officer Phillip Camero of the Honolulu Police Department's Missing Persons Detail with good news about her 80-year-old husband, Masayuki Kubo, who suffers from Alzheimer's.
Masayuki Kubo, 80, has been missing for the past week.
"No, not yet," Jessie Kubo tells Sarzak, once again answering the question most asked since last Saturday.
When alone, Kubo thinks about her husband of 41 years without his reading glasses, helplessly wandering around, too proud to admit he's tired, lost or hungry. Each minute she waits is excruciating.
"Every day gets harder," she says, "because it's been too long.
"I can't help but think somebody hurt him, threw him in the ocean. But I pray, and wait by the phone, hoping maybe somebody is taking care of him."
Masayuki Kubo had about $10 and a bus pass in his wallet when he left for a morning walk a week ago, his wife said. Kubo is physically fit except for his memory problems and needs only daily medication for glaucoma, which he hasn't taken in a week.
This is the third time Kubo has been reported missing since Mother's Day on May 13.
The first time, he was found at the corner of Winam Avenue and Castle Street in Kapahulu four hours after leaving home.
"A couple from Nanakuli saw him fall down and helped him," Jessie Kubo said. "He was hungry, thirsty and tired."
A week later, Masayuki Kubo again failed to return from a walk. He was missing for about eight hours before being located at Kapi'olani Park.
Kubo took off again two weeks ago, this time in his wife's car. He returned four hours later and told her he went driving in the country.
"I don't think there's foul play because he has been missing before," Officer Camero said. "But anything's possible. My hope is that he came across people who would help him."
Camero and Alzheimer's Association-Aloha Chapter volunteers will participate in a search today organized by Imperial Plaza management and residents. They will meet at 7:30 a.m. at Imperial Plaza.
Janet Bender, executive director of Alzheimer's Association-Aloha Chapter, says 19,700 people in Hawai'i have Alzheimer's.
"Our national association estimates nearly 60 percent will wander at least once, which means we can safely say 10,000 people in Hawai'i will wander like Mr. Kubo," Bender said.
Anyone with information on Masayuki Kubo is asked to call Camero at 529-3394 or the Alzheimer's Association at 591-2771.
