Every once in a while, Kahuena Kaona’s parents will ask her to pick up a little something on the way home from work.
No problem, Kaona says. Piece of cake.
So what if Kaona’s piece of cake is what the rest of us might consider a half-dozen rotating platters of hassle. Family is family, she reasons, and where family is concerned, there are no favors, just opportunities to help.
And so Kaona clocks out from her night gig as a Hawaiian Airlines gate attendant and hops on a plane to Salt Lake City to pick up one of those adorable little nieces of hers. Usually, her younger sister Ala is waiting right there at the airport.
“I literally jump off the plane, grab my niece and jump right back on,” says Kaona, 35. “Sometimes my co-workers laugh because they see me coming back and I’m still wearing the same clothes.”
Sometimes Kaona will deliver her precious cargo all the way to the family home on Kauai. Other times, she’ll meet her dad at Honolulu Airport for a quick handoff before a much-deserved slumber back in her own Manoa Valley home.
Such is life when a close-knit family finds itself spread out across three states and a couple of islands. So it goes when Auntie Ena just happens to wield a very coveted set of airline flying benefits.
Kaona grew up in Kilauea, Kauai, the third of five children born to two teachers. Each of the five children went on to attend Kamehameha Schools at Kapalama.
As a 12-year-old boarding student, Kaona found herself thrust into an unfamiliar, highly regimented environment with no one to turn to but her older siblings, Leolani and Kahananui.
“The experience really brought us together,” Kaona says. “It was the same when (younger siblings) Kailiala and Kapule came up later. We had to be responsible and grow up fast, but we always knew we could count on each other.”
Kaona also leaned on her faith to resist the temptations around her and to establish the foundations of discipline, practicality and goal-setting that would define her later life.
The family found itself gradually dispersed as each sibling attended college and pursued individual careers. Kaona graduated from Brigham Young-Hawaii with a degree in hospitality and tourism. She started working as a reservations clerk during her senior year and has been with the airline since.
Since transferring to the gate six years ago, the highly sociable Kaona has found joy in the unexpected everyday reunions she has with old friends, sports teammates and classmates who pass through.
She’s also made good use of her flying benefits, which allow her to return to Kauai each weekend and to explore the world during annual birthday excursions.
“It keeps me sane,” she says, laughing.
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Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@staradvertiser.com.
