<Begin Segment 20>

TI: So going back to your life after your mother and father, you felt stifled, you felt like all of a sudden you had all these authority that you had to deal with.

RM: Yes.

TI: How about your, going back to your sister, 'cause I want to complete that story, did she feel the same way? Did you ever talk to her --

RM: Absolutely not. I'm sure she didn't. When I got into my little difficulties with my parents, or with my brother Victor, even, I think most of the time she probably just laughed. I think she had a good sense of humor. And if she thought that what I was doing, my behavior was, was from a personal point of view justified, well, she probably laughed about it. I've got a, I've got a picture of her that other ones may not have.

TI: The two of you were pretty close then, that she understood you, in other words?

RM: Of course, by blood we were probably the closest of any of the siblings, but she never confided in me. I never confided in her either, and we were both pretty independent.

TI: But it sounds like she understood you, though, when, you mentioned that when she was, would watch your antics she wouldn't get worried. She would just sort of laugh.

RM: I would think so, yeah. I don't think she was worried about me, no. I think she probably sympathized with me. In fact, at the point where she finally did, you know, die, I think I, my eventual feeling was that I sympathized with her, and if anything I probably would've blamed my mother if anybody had pointed it out to me, but, and the war, of course.

TI: So, so tell me what happened to your sister. We talked a little bit and we, we know she committed suicide. How did she commit suicide?

RM: You mean the actual physical manner that she did it? She tried a number of times, and I, again, I explained that. One night I came home and I smelled gas and I went into the kitchen and I realized that all the windows were closed and the door, and the gas was on. I can hold my breath 'cause I'd always been in the water and stuff like that, been reasonably healthy, except I drank and smoked and everything else, but I got into the room and I turned all the gas off and I started opening up the windows so the gas would flow out. And I could see her in the maid's room -- that was the live in maid, maid's room -- and I kind of shook my head, thinkin', God, she's gone crazy. Only crazy people do that. And after I got upstairs and we'd opened up anything, made sure everything was gonna clear out, the gas was gonna clear out, I thought, hell, she could have blown us up, you know? That's a dumb thing to do. And I went to bed and heard her come up maybe forty-five minutes later and go in her room.

And that was the first time I realized it, but then it began dawning on me that, it wasn't just me, that she was going through as much difficulty as I was. It's just that she, she didn't display it in the same manner that I was displaying it, in outright rebellion. It was very internal. I think as far as her social life, it must've been very full because she had boyfriends. One guy was name Mohammed and I think he was, if I remember, his last name was Saddiq, I think it was, S-A-D-D... you know. And Mohammed would always call her Burlanti, which I think is, again, in Arabic, Pearl, and he'd use that that Arabic term to address her. He probably cried more than anybody else at the funeral, so they must've had a very, very sincere, very deep relationship. There was also, also one of the Punui Park heroes who knew about hotrods and stuff and who might've got me started on that stuff, guy named Callahan, good Irish name, but Hawaiian in face. I think he was, mother was Chinese-Hawaiian. And I know she was, he was kind of a mysterious guy because he'd go and caddy up at the Nuuanu Country Club and he was the guy that made the most money there because he'd gamble with the guys after they made all their tips stuff from carrying clubs, and he's always the guy that had money, won it all from everybody else. And I though, in a way I guess he was kind of the gang boss up at the park, but she started goin' around with him and I think that was probably her last boyfriend, possibly even the most significant.

TI: So socially she was doing well. I mean, there were lots of people who liked her.

RM: She got along with a lot of people, yeah.

TI: Got along with lots of people.

RM: Even at Punahou School she was very popular with her, her own classmates.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.