An entire day had passed and the shock that Aloha Airlines was shutting down passenger service still had not sunk in for many employees who remained stunned and unconvinced of their new reality yesterday.

Aloha flight attendant Shawna Bowman still had not had a serious discussion with her husband, Aloha pilot Glen Bowman, about what they're going to do to pay their $5,000-a-month mortgage on their four-bedroom home in Hawai'i Kai — or how they're going to take care of their three children, ages 15, 12 and 2.

"Our whole life as we know it has ended," said Shawna, 35. "No one expected this to happen."

Bowman and more than 200 current and former Aloha Airlines employees gathered outside of U.S. Bankruptcy Court yesterday, grieving the end of 61 years of passenger service for their beloved airline.

The event was supposed to be an employee rally. Instead, it felt more like a wake as workers openly wept and hugged one another over the loss of Hawai'i's No. 2 carrier.

For at least another day, it seemed, there would be another time to consider a future without an Aloha Airlines paycheck keeping the workers' finances afloat.

"Right now, we're going through a crisis," said Nani Vincent, who works the graveyard shift cleaning aircraft. "We need to support our company right now. Once we know where we stand, we can move on to the next level, finding employment. In a day or two — or maybe a week — people will go look for employment or sign up for unemployment."

Marya Grambs, executive director of Mental Health America of Hawai'i (formerly the Mental Health Association), saw the rally from her office window and sympathized with the swirl of emotions. Grambs was not surprised that many employees have yet to begin the pragmatic work of figuring out what to do next to make a living.

"They're probably in a state of shock and I'm sure there's the denial, 'This can't be happening. It won't happen,' " Grambs said. "It takes a while for it to settle in and say, 'How am I going to pay the next month's rent?' "

Aloha employees are going through "a very emotional, destabilizing, extremely traumatic time," Grambs said.

There will be fear of financial shortfall, grief at losing the interaction with co-workers, anger, shock, disbelief and a whole menu of emotions that will come and go in an instant, she said.

"Their mood is going to change from hour to hour: from terrified to shock to anger in an instant. At times they'll even go numb from feeling too many feelings."

For much of yesterday, the mood among the throng of employees milling about Fort Street Mall was disbelief that Aloha was actually shutting down.

Many had been through bankruptcy with Aloha before. But Sunday's announcement of an end to passenger service and loss of 1,900 of the company's 3,500 jobs stunned them into disbelief.

Asked what she might do for work at the age of 51, Cindy Pregana — an Aloha parts repair and warranty supervisor — was blunt.

"Don't know," she said. "I have no idea."

A handful of employees, however, were betting on prayer.

"Right now, I'm just hoping for a miracle," said flight attendant Marissa Vasper, 31. "I've always wanted to be a flight attendant. I just can't believe what's happening. This carrier's been around forever."

The mood among employees at the airport wasn't much different.

"Today is an incredibly sad day," said Thom Nulty, Aloha chief marketing officer, during a press briefing at the carrier's interisland terminal. "This whole area will become pretty vacant."

Nulty said the shutdown produced a wave of calls to Aloha's reservations lines yesterday.

"Half of the people who are calling aren't looking for help, they are calling to say how bad they feel," said Nulty, who himself was out of a job with the passenger operations' shutdown. But as of last night, "there will be no one to talk to at Aloha," he said.

Wayne Wakeman, an Aloha pilot since 1989 and the speaker for a new group called Save Aloha, said, "I look at this as an interim shutdown just to stop the bleeding."

After more than 18 years at Aloha, the 59-year-old Wakeman said, "I'm just going day by day right now. This is such a bombshell. It happened so quick."

Reality is certain to set in for many of the Island-born and bred Aloha Airlines employees who want to stay here.

The state's unemployment rate continued its steady rise in February, reaching its highest peak in nearly four years.

February's 3.2 percent seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was a tick above January's 3.1 percent but a leap over the previous February's 2.4 percent.

Flight attendant Andrew Banquil, 28, and his wife, Jennifer, 37, a former Aloha flight attendant, recently lived in San Francisco for 18 months but decided the future for them and their two children lies in the Islands.

"The people up there are different," Andrew said. "We gave San Francisco a try, but I'd like to raise our kids here in Hawai'i. We're a lot happier here."

Jennifer added, "We're local people, you know."

Andrew may be a little bit further ahead of other Aloha employees in finding a new career in Hawai'i. His brother has offered him a job selling high-end bathroom appliances.

But most of his co-workers yesterday were like flight attendant Amber-Lynn Hyden, 22, who was still dealing with the shock.

"Nobody expected this," she said. "We feel completely blind-sided."