The blood-slowing cold of that first winter in Syracuse might have been enough to send a less devout young nun scrambling home to Pepeekeo, but Sister Margaret Antone Milho knew adjustments would have to be made once she devoted herself to the church.
What really pained her was the homesickness.
"I could suffer the cold," said Milho. "The hardest thing for me was being so far away from my family."
In time, Milho would come to realize that with the proper perspective, with the proper openness of heart, all the world could be her home. That understanding would serve her well as she followed her calling from New York back to Hawaii and many points in between.
Milho was born in Kilauea, where her father ran the Kilauea Sugar Plantation garage. There, in the rural northeast end of Kauai, she and her three siblings learned to weigh the pleasures of the world against the blessings of family and faith.
"I went to public school, so I didn’t have a Catholic education," Milho says. "I learned about the church through my family."
When Milho was a junior in high school, the family relocated to Pepeekeo on the Big Island. Milho graduated from Hilo High School in 1951, then spent a year working in a plantation office, wondering what the future had in store for her.
"I enjoyed spending time with boys and all of that, but then I’d be in the middle of the dance floor thinking, ‘Is this all?’"
Milho had long felt that she was meant to serve others as a nun. And so she took off to Syracuse and its cold, cold winters.
"God is good and I’ve liked everywhere I’ve been," Milho says. "No matter what, I did the best I could and the joy that came to me came from the Lord. I missed my family, but I learned that we also create our own families because we’re all joined under one king."
Be it New York or North Carolina or Ewa Beach, Milho said she enjoyed the warmth and comfort of her home convent and the love and support of her surrounding communities. In return she offered her considerable energy, her unbending faith, even a little hula.
A talented singer and dancer from her days back on the plantation, Milho has taught generations of students the rudiments of hula for in-class activities and school performances.
These days, Milho makes her home among the Sisters of St. Francis, serving as a counselor to seventh- and eighth-grade students at St. Francis School in Manoa.
"Things are different than when I was growing up, but at this age students are still trying to make the right choices and find out what they want," she says. "I try to talk to them about how they can help themselves and help others. I want them to know that there is so much goodness out there, and it’s our job to help each other find it."
