She started off as a “substitute” aunty before becoming a full-time aunty. Now, she’s a retired aunty.
Regardless, once an aunty, always an aunty. And also, always a beloved one.
Meet Lauretta Sewake, one of the lei-giving, aloha-spreading “aunties” of University of Hawaii volleyball and basketball.
“I enjoy doing it to spread the aloha, not for fame and glory,” she said.
Sewake started attending games when the Stan Sheriff Center opened in 1994 and gave lei, she estimates, from 1999 to 2019.
But she has been MIA — Missing In Aloha — the past few seasons, and Sewake, who will turn 86 on July 20, says her days of attending UH games in person are over. You could say she medically retired.
“I have a heart condition. I had a pacemaker put in. And I got rheumatoid arthritis,” she said. “I have a lot of pain from the arthritis problem, and other kinds of minor things compounded it. (I) feel better with the pacemaker.” She admits that she “can’t walk far. I get exhausted.”
Sewake said she’s had some of the problems for a while, but she thinks it worsened around when the pandemic started.
“Last year I got really bad,” she said. “Hard time breathing. I kept telling them, ‘I can’t breathe, I’m tired.’ Once I get these attacks I sleep all day, all night. I can’t do anything.”
A heart specialist initially couldn’t pinpoint the issue. “Nothing was wrong. My heart was strong,” she said.
Then one day her pulse dropped to 38 beats per minute (the pulse rate of healthy adults ranges from 60 to 100 bpm).
“Finally when I landed in the hospital again, they took more tests and discovered that my heart would stop. You know, about six seconds,” she said.
“So that’s why I had a hard time breathing and was always tired. I would feel good one day, the next day, I’m down again.”
But she doesn’t stay down for long. A recent visit by her family (sons, granddaughter, great grandson) seemed to have lifted her spirits.
“I have to be (happy) … all the time. That’s how I want to be,” she said. “That’s why I like people to be smiling, too. So I know they’re happy.”
This heart-warming nature is an innate trait of Sewake, who’s part Chinese, Japanese and Hawaiian and 100% aloha.
In fact, her son created for her an email string that included “mrsaloha.”
Sewake’s career as an “aunty” actually started as a substitute before growing into a fan foursome with Lenora Yagi, Florence Kim and Ellen Tamura.
“Lenora has been to the games for umpteenth years. … She was going to games from Klum Gym,” Sewake said. “We were friends from a long time ago. She asked me once if I wanted to go to a game with her because she had extra ticket. I said I would love to go, so I started to go with her as a substitute when someone was sick or couldn’t make it.”
Sewake would eventually buy a seat next to Yagi around 1999 and they soon were joined by Tamura, who bought her son’s ticket, and Kim, who bought an available seat next to the group. (Tamura decided she couldn’t attend shortly after, so the group was down to 3.)
The lei-giving was started by Yagi, with Sewake spreading the aloha to all participants, even opponents.
At first, Sewake would pick the flowers and string the lei.
She had a friend who had a puakenikeni tree and “he would help me sew. But he passed away.”
Sewake was later fortunate enough to get longer-lasting crown flowers — more suited for matches played over three days — from Gayle Harimoto, who helped pick for entertainers.
“She went all over through her neighborhood. She is the one. She has the hardest job because she’s the one picking the flowers.”
Before Harimoto’s assistance, Sewake had to pick the flowers and “then it was too much work for me. I had to buy and it was too expensive for me.”
Sewake was struck by the generosity of strangers.
“Everyone calls me aunty wherever I go. A lot of people donated money to me,” said Sewake. “Over the years, they see me outside the game, at the market, shopping, wherever. When they see me and they want to donate. I tell them no I don’t need money because I get the flowers for free.”
Besides the lei-giving, what does she miss most about not attending in person?
“The excitement of being there and cheering and having fun,” she said. “I miss all the players, all the fans, so many nice people throughout the years there.”
So who were some of her favorite players to give a lei to?
In a typical Sewake reply, she said: “They’re all my favorites.”
