Georgetown? Another Mainland university?

Those places could wait. All of Fa'aaliga Vaisagote Coffin's daughters have started their adult lives at Chaminade University of Honolulu, and Coffin, who stayed abreast of educational opportunities in the Pacific, could see no reason to vary the pattern for her fifth — or sixth daughter, for that matter.

"I work in the education department in American Samoa," the elder Coffin said. "When my oldest was ready, I looked at all the magazines and newsletters that came in. I asked around."

When she decided Chaminade's smaller size, religious emphasis and Pacific location were good for her first daughter, she decided it was for good for all of them. She worked to make sure her daughters saw it the same way.

"I brought home the pictures of the dormitory rooms and the campus and I said, 'See, this is what you are working toward,' " she said. "I said, 'I cannot afford it. You must excel and get scholarships.' "

Fa'aaliga and Thomas Henry Coffin will spend Mother's Day with their daughters who live in Hawai'i. Front, from left: Lydia Coffin, Geraldine Falefuafua (with daughter Baby Mariya), April Coffin. Back: Victoria Coffin, Eleanor Coffin. Another daughter, Brenda, lives in American Samoa. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

Fa'aaliga Vaisagote Coffin flew to Hawai'i last week for a visit with her daughters and was joined Friday by her husband, Thomas Henry Coffin.

Today, her reunited family will celebrate Mother's Day.

Tomorrow, Lydia will don a gown and blue-and-white tasseled cap and become the fourth Coffin daughter her parents will see graduate from Chaminade. She is the first Coffin daughter — and the first woman and the first Pacific Islander from outside Hawai'i — to serve as Chaminade's student body president, a school spokeswoman said.

Lydia's sister Victoria, the baby of the family, will graduate from Chaminade in two years, rounding off a Coffin sorority of a half-dozen members who have attended Chaminade.

The sisters say they have their mother to thank for their drive and academic successes here.

"She made sure we thought about Chaminade," Lydia said of her mother last week. "All of us. I was thinking I might prefer Georgetown or somewhere on the Mainland, but she said, 'Hawai'i first. It'll make a good transition.' "

The elder Coffin saw a succession of transitions for her daughters. Her oldest daughter, Eleanor, came to Hawai'i while Eleanor's paternal grandparents were alive and living on the North Shore.

Eleanor lived on campus at the 50-year-old Catholic-affiliated university and spent weekends with her grandparents. Then she stayed in Hawai'i and helped ease the way for her younger sisters.

Lydia said the transition has been so easy, she sometimes feels like she never left home.

"My first week on campus," Lydia said, "I went to buy books and the cashier said, 'Are you a Coffin girl? You look like a Coffin girl.' "

The big eyes the Coffin girls inherited from their mother give her away every time, she said.

One Coffin daughter, Brenda, who attended Chaminade but did not graduate, has moved back to American Samoa, where she teaches. A Coffin son, Alexander, also teaches there.

Geraldine, the second Coffin daughter, is married and lives with her family in Mililani.

When rental costs shot up, Eleanor, April, Lydia and Victoria moved into a house in 'Ewa Beach to share expenses. All four will be working this summer, but at least three of the daughters are considering graduate school soon.

Lydia said that in addition to a summer legal internship, she'll be studying this summer for the law school admissions test. This time, she said, she will set her sights on Georgetown.

Mom will be a little nervous about the move, Lydia said, but she'll go along as long as she sees her daughter is moving ahead.

"Mom doesn't like it when we take breaks," Lydia said. "She'll be saying, 'So, what are you doing next? You can't sit around and do nothing!' "