Rod Ohira's People
Garden helps cultivate patience

By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer

Philip P.K. Chee keeps his lawn free of weeds, his mock-orange hedge neatly trimmed and his flower garden blooming. But in the 51 years he's lived at the corner of East Hind Drive and Hind Iuka Drive in 'Aina Haina, Chee has been unable to keep speeding motorists from tearing up his yard.

Philip Chee says that speeding cars have damaged his hedge and yard more than a dozen times. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

He noted the first major incident occurred in the 1970s when a car hit his son's Volkswagen parked near the garage and demolished a hollow-tile wall. There have been two other major incidents since then. "If I counted the minor ones — the times cars only hit the hedge — it's happened over a dozen times," Chee said.

About 12 years ago, the city installed a long metal guardrail in front of the hedge fronting East Hind Drive to protect Chee's home. But on Nov. 29, 1997, a car struck the guardrail, flipped over the hedge and landed in Chee's yard, not far from his bedroom. The driver escaped serious injury, but Chee's yard was again damaged.

The city repaired the guardrail, the motorist's insurance paid for fixes to the house and Chee painstakingly put his yard back together.

"These people don't realize how much labor I put in," Chee said. "My yard is a big part of my life."

In March 2000, Chee suffered a stroke that weakened the left side of his body. Unable to do yardwork for nine months, Chee turned to his sons for help. The stroke has slowed him down, but from last December, Chee has been working six hours a day in the yard.

"I weed, trim the hedge, mow and do landscaping work in the back yard," he said. "The doctors said I could hope for 80 percent recovery from this kind of stroke. But I'm trying for 90."

At 4:30 in the morning on Aug. 22, Chee's yard took another hit.

A Lincoln Mark IV, speeding on the East Hind Drive straightaway from Kalaniana'ole Highway, failed to negotiate the bend in the roadway fronting Chee's home. The car went through a section of hedge not covered by the guardrail, through the lawn and flower garden and sideswiped his house. "It stopped this far from the spare bedroom," said Chee, spreading his thumb and forefinger about two inches apart.

"When I went outside," he added, "it looked like something had bulldozed the yard. I think the soft soil of the flower garden slowed down the car."

Except for a gaping 6-foot-wide hole in the hedge, Chee has his yard looking good again. "It took over four years to heal the yard (from the 1997 accident) and then this one happens," he said. "Yeah, it burns me inside. But how you control your attitude is a big part of life."

The patience and tolerance that shows up in his yardwork is part of Chee's character.

"This actually helps my mind," he said of the extra work created by the most recent incident. "I want to survive but having had a stroke, the odds are against me. I'm doing my utmost to rebuild my lifestyle, and yardwork is therapy for me. And the yard that was damaged is being rebuilt just like me."

Chee and his wife, the former Winifred Lai, raised five sons at their 'Aina Haina home. He considered replacing the mock-orange hedge with a rock wall to better protect his family but decided not to do it. "I think it would be more dangerous (for the driver)," he said. "I don't want anyone to get killed."

A Big Island native and member of the second graduating class of Pahala High School (now Ka'u High) in 1941, Chee was 18 years old when he came to Honolulu to work at the shipyard. After moving to 'Aina Haina, he became an active volunteer in the Kalaniana'ole Athletic Club's youth baseball program.

Chee coached, but his major contribution to KAC was his work on the baseball plating fields at 'Aina Haina School. Chee cut grass, prepared the infields and maintained the city fields there for 43 years.

As a good guy in his neighborhood for more than half a century, Chee deserves a chance to appreciate the effort he puts into what his wife calls "his pride and joy." Let's hope this is the last time he will have to fix up his yard because someone doesn't care enough to drive responsibly.