Every Monday and Thursday, somebody brings dinner to the Metz's Mililani house. They aren't allowed to know who is bringing the food because they might call that person and say, "Ah, don't trouble yourself." They're not the type to ask for help, but the Abunais aren't the kind to take no for an answer.

It came upon her without warning. In 2007, Kelly Metz was sewing a costume for her daughter's hula class when she felt something go bang in her chest. Her sister rushed her to Pali Momi, and after some tests, she was transferred to Queen's for emergency open heart surgery for an aortic aneurism. When her husband, Mark, got there, the surgeon told him his wife may not survive surgery and that he should say his goodbyes.

The soccer parents from their son's team, Abunai Academy in Mililani, stayed with Mark outside the operating room when he wasn't sure his wife was going to make it.

Kelly, now 49, survived and healed, but had a second operation in December when the plastic tube doctors used to replace an 8-centimeter section of her damaged aorta detached from her heart. She's not out of the woods yet. There's another section of an artery to worry about.

It has been a long road for the family and their two children, son Cameron, 14 and daughter Morgan, 10, but the soccer parents have been with them the whole way.

"The first time my wife was in Queen's, she was there for like 12 days," Mark said. "The parents came to the hospital and said, 'Mark, can we have the keys to your house?' "

Dazed and exhausted, he handed them over without really thinking about it.

"I came home, they had come in like an army and cleaned everything, scrubbed the bathrooms, cleaned the kitchen, mowed the yard," Mark said.

Darlene Tajiri, Abunai team manager, downplayed their efforts. "That's just what we do. Our sons have been playing together since they were 7 years old, and they're 14 now. They're all like brothers. We've traveled so many times together. We're a family."

Sometimes the parents just quietly drop off the dinner. Sometimes they stay and visit. Last Thursday, the menu was lasagna, salad and brownies, all homemade. "Of course homemade," Tajiri said. "We wouldn't have it any other way."

"They got our kids to school and to soccer, fed them. And every Monday and Thursday like clockwork, somebody comes with a full home-cooked meal," Mark said. "It's just amazing. We never asked for their help. They were just there."

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.