Honolulu Weekly

O’ahu Cemetery / With its serene setting, storied history and impressive statuary, the O’ahu Cemetery is an heirloom of Honolulu’s past; the Nu’uanu park was the first public burial ground in the Hawaiian Islands. During the early 1800s, with 400 foreign ships docked in the Honolulu Harbor releasing an invasion of dying sailors carrying untreatable infectious diseases, the need for a sanitary burial site was massive. The Polynesian, one of Honolulu’s original newspapers, declared, “The dead will rise up in judgment against us, if this is not speedily done.” In 1844, the cemetery received a land grant from King Kamehameha III giving title of the land to the O’ahu Cemetery Association, establishing it as one of the first non-profit organizations in the Islands.

Initially known as Nu’uanu Cemetery, the site was chosen because of its close proximity to town, as well as the area’s heavy rains, which made for easier grave digging. In 1905, the association’s trustees realized the need for a crematory furnace; O’ahu Cemetery is now alleged to be the oldest crematory west of the Rocky Mountains.

Today, the cemetery is managed by Superintendent Hal Lewis. In the company of seven groundskeepers and three staff members, the cemetery still has the appearance of being appreciated and well maintained. The groundskeepers all wear uniforms with their names sewn on to them and Lewis emits an aura of easy goodwill.

“The groundskeepers learn everything they need to know here, so it’s pretty much all on-the-job training,” Lewis said. One thing that makes our groundskeepers a little different is that we have a crematory. There are rotating shifts and after 4 o’clock they go into the crematory and do the cremations.” Lewis explained that except for those who bought plots 20–30 years ago, it is difficult to be buried in Honolulu. “We do about fifteen body burials a year and about 300 cremations.” With over 30,000 burials in the cemetery, things have gotten a bit crowded over the years, but the transition from casket burials to cremation has helped. In the same amount of space formerly reserved for a single body, more than 70 cremated remains can now be buried.

“All of our body burials are done in the old style, by hand. [We] do not use any machines, the graves are perfectly rectangular and they go down six-feet deep,” Lewis said. Like most cemeteries, O’ahu Cemetery asks families to leave as the casket is being lowered, “It can be a very emotional event and people have grabbed onto the casket while in their grieving process, but if a family requests to view the lowering, we will honor that.”

As far as strange occurrences go, only one of the groundskeepers had experiences he wanted to talk about. Antonio Ipalari, or “The Professor” as the rest of the crew call him, told stories of noises that he couldn’t explain.

“I don’t really believe in ghosts because I haven’t seen one. But one night around 10, as the crematory was in operation, I heard some kind of raking, at least three times. When I checked, there was no one there. Another time I heard water running from the faucet outside. I thought it was possibly a homeless person but when I went outside to check, there was no one there and it wasn’t even wet.”

When asked about the less ideal parts of their job, Danilo Villarin talked about cremation, “It’s hard to explain, but it is kind of challenging. But you know someone has to do it and once you get the system down, it does go smoothly.”

Lewis further explained that in dealing with a great deal of fuel and fire at temperatures of about 1,600 degrees Fahrenheit, it becomes more of a safety issue than anything else.

“People ask me how I can do this every day and I tell them it’s mostly because we get to meet such beautiful families here and work with them.” Lewis and his staff are all friendly and cordial. One might think this business could have a morose effect on a person. He smiled, noticing a family with a child nearby said quietly, “Well, dying is just part of life.”