1949-2004
Edward Medeiros, Kailua mechanic
By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Staff Writer
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Edward Medeiros, 54, a Kailua auto mechanic who died this month, was always going out of his way to help someone, friends and family said.
Sometimes, it was staying up all night to help a someone fix an engine. Sometimes it was getting up early in the morning to bring doughnuts to a local drug treatment center.
Sometimes, it was just being Eddie, always there with a smile and a word to brighten your day.
"It might just be a phone call that started with 'Hey, beautiful, how you doing?' " said Keala Simon. "What woman wouldn't get a smile on her face after that greeting?"
Maybe the thing people around Kailua remember most about Medeiros was the time he fixed up the cars — all 1,039 of them — of Kane'ohe Marines sent to fight in the first Gulf War.
The first Marines to come home had found their cars sitting empty with all the oil leaked out, their batteries dead and their fuel pumps and carburetors clogged.
When Medeiros heard about it through his work with the Windward Rotary Club, he quickly organized a group of fellow Unocal gas station owners to service the vehicles. It took them several months, but eventually every car was fixed.
Medeiros never charged a penny for the work.
"That's just the way he was," his wife, Velma, recalled the other day. "He didn't have any bells and whistles. He was just a down-to-earth, caring person."
Medeiros gave up the Kailua Unocal station he owned several years ago and started a mobile auto repair business, the kind that comes to you in times of distress.
"If a customer called at 11 o'clock, stranded on the Pali Highway, he'd always be right there," said Velma, who met Eddie when they were on a tour to Portugal together seven years ago.
When his stepdaughter, Danielle, went to work for the Po'ailani drug treatment center in Kailua, Medeiros signed up to help, too.
One morning he would stop by to mow the lawn and trim the bushes before anyone else got to work. Other times, workers would arrive to find fresh cooked breakfasts sitting on their desks, courtesy of Medeiros. "Eat up," he'd say. "I had all of the calories removed." On days he brought doughnuts, he'd leave a hand-written message on the box: "Go Make Friends."
"He would do things for others and never wait around for a pat on the back or a thank you," Po'ailani Executive Director Abby Paredes said in a eulogy at his funeral. "His satisfaction was in helping others."
When Medeiros got sick earlier this year, he kept trying to help others and spreading his good cheer.
He installed equipment in his bathroom to make it easier on family members who would eventually have to take care of him.
Medeiros died April 4.
Reach Mike Leidemann at mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5460.
