Like other longtime couples, Ricky Donre and Lisa Rivera had their good times and their bad times.
Donre was a loving father to their four daughters and made them his first priority. But he often frustrated Rivera because he didn’t always do his chores around the house.
None of the bad stuff matters anymore. Donre, 38, died May 26 following a crash May 23 in which a hit-and-run driver ran into him and his mo-ped. The motorist has not been located.
"It’s hard to live without him after 15 years," Rivera said in an interview in front of their apartment on busy University Avenue. The walk-up is less than half a mile from the site of the crash at the three-way intersection of Isenberg, Date and Citron streets in McCully.
"We had that connection. And my daughters were happy that they had a mom and a dad who were together," Rivera said. "It was like I couldn’t live without him and he couldn’t live without me."
The family celebrated the birth of baby Selena on May 15. A picture of a proud Donre with his newborn daughter is on Rivera’s Facebook page.
The couple’s other three daughters are Sierra, 15, Alliyah, 10, and Ericka, 7.
"The kids, that was his No. 1 priority," Rivera said. He would take them to the park, to the store and, their favorite place, Fun Factory.
On the night of the crash, Donre was finishing work early from his job as a cook at Chili’s restaurant in Waikiki so he could attend Alliyah’s fifth-grade graduation from Kuhio Elementary School the next morning, Rivera said. Usually, he would have left work at 11 p.m. The crash happened at 9:30.
"He really, really wanted to go to that graduation," she said. "That’s the saddest part."
The family went on with its graduation plans May 24 without Donre, hoping and expecting he would come out of his coma and recover.
There were physical signs that he would improve, Rivera said. Also, "In the past, he had two other accidents (while riding mo-peds) and he survived," she said.
He bought his most recent mo-ped about two months ago from a friend for $400 shortly after his last one was stolen, Rivera said.
She had urged him repeatedly to stop riding them. "But he don’t learn. … He was so determined to go to work with a mo-ped. He didn’t like catching bus."
Donre came to Hawaii from Micronesia in 1995, Rivera said. Donre and Rivera, a local girl who grew up in the University area, met 15 years ago at Annex, a bar on Lewers Street that is no longer there.
"He was always the life of the party," Rivera said. "He was always happy when he was with his family, his kids."
Donre had been scheduled to travel with his cousin Ben Amusen back to their native island of Pohnpei this past week. That plan was canceled when Rivera became pregnant with Selena, Rivera said.
"Finally now, he’ll be coming home," Amusen said.
Donre’s wish was to be buried in Pohnpei, and his body is to be flown there next week. He had spoken often of showing his homeland to Sierra, his eldest daughter.
That wish will become reality.
On Sunday, Donre’s family and friends held a fundraiser to help raise money for his body to return to Pohnpei. Sierra will be his escort.
Donre will be remembered at a service Tuesday at Central Union Church. Visitation will be from 5 to 6:30 p.m. A service will begin at 6:30. Casual attire is requested.
Besides Rivera and his four daughters, Donre is survived by stepdaughter Lerisa Reynold, mother Eprihna Donre and sister Susan Daniel.
Lt. Robert Towne of the Honolulu Police Traffic Division said officers have been following up on several leads in the search for the vehicle that hit Donre, but there have been no new developments. He urged the public to call CrimeStoppers at 955-8300 with any information. The vehicle is described as a light-colored sedan, possibly a Nissan, which was traveling east on Date Street after the crash.
Rivera and Amusen said it’s inexplicable to them that the driver of the vehicle has not come forward.
"I wouldn’t be able to live the rest of my life knowing I killed somebody and he had kids," Rivera said. "Can you live with a guilty conscience all of your life knowing you killed a family’s future?"
"God bless him," Amusen said. "You make an accident like that and then you try to hide it, what I believe is something is going to happen to you if he doesn’t turn himself in. I believe that."
