Olivia Breitha at her home in Kalaupapa

Olivia Robello Breitha: 1916-2006

Kalaupapa woman put a human touch on a misunderstood disease

By Valerie Monson

KALAUPAPA -- When 90-year-old author and human rights activist Olivia Robello Breitha died at Kalaupapa on Sept. 28, no one expected that the entire world would stop and pay homage to a woman who put a human touch on a misunderstood disease.

From the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post to the BBC and the Civil Rights Today website, news of Breitha’s death — and the story of her remarkable life where she battled the stigma of leprosy — quickly swept across the globe. At last count, articles about her had appeared in no less than 17 states as well as in Europe and Asia, with headlines of praise and respect.

Perhaps nobody at Kalaupapa — after Father Damien de Veuster, Mother Marianne Cope and Brother Joseph Dutton — has been mourned by so many. Unlike those three famed religious leaders who went to Kalaupapa to serve God and their fellow human beings, Breitha had no choice: she was sent to the Molokai peninsula in 1937, three years after she was diagnosed with leprosy at the age of 18.

“Probably for the first time, the international press is understanding that this was someone with leprosy who was dealing with human rights issues,” said Anwei Skinsnes Law, the international coordinator of the Hansen’s disease advocacy organization IDEA (Integration, Dignity and Economic Advancement) and a close friend of Breitha’s for more than 35 years.

“Olivia’s death has transformed the way people are now writing about this disease,” she said. “All of a sudden, here are words of dignity and not just pitying words being used and I think that’s significant.”

Breitha had already achieved something of a celebrity status among tourists to Kalaupapa because of her memoir, “Olivia: My Life of Exile in Kalaupapa,” which remains a bestseller at the settlement’s book store. Around Christmastime of 1982, she was incited into writing her story while watching an episode of “M.A.S.H.” where an actor complained about having to “live in these dirty leprous surroundings.” For most of her life, Breitha — like others at Kalaupapa — had silently simmered while society made jokes or other hurtful comments about people with leprosy.

She would suffer no more.

“Are we a laughing stock because we have this disease?” she once said to a reporter. “Leprosy is not funny. They think leprosy is not real. They don’t think of us as people. They think of us as an it. I am not an it. I am Olivia.”

And so Breitha picked up a pen to let the cast of “M.A.S.H.” and the rest of the world know how she felt. Ever since the book’s publication in 1988, she has received stacks of letters from readers she inspired. William Merwin, the Pulitzer-Prize winning poet, dedicated a book to Breitha. Visitors to Kalaupapa would drop by her house for autographs.

Her friends and neighbors found refuge at her home as well, especially if they needed some advice or just a friendly ear. Gertrude Kaauwai, who was sent to Kalaupapa in 1944, remembered how Breitha, a faithful Catholic who loved Latin, turned her life around when she was having a personal dilemma.

“I promised her how I was going to change and she hugged me and said ‘You’re going to be a different woman now,’ and I was,” said Kaauwai. “She talked to me about praying. I loved Olivia. She was strong and had so much faith in God. I thank God for having a beautiful woman like Olivia for a friend.”

Breitha’s niece, Rose Pescaia, spent many hours in Breitha’s cozy living room, too, hoping that her aunt had baked some of her famous prune cake or a pot of Portuguese bean soup.

“She was more like a mom to me,” said Pescaia, who even got a job in Kalaupapa to be closer to her aunt. “I keep thinking of 6089 — her telephone number — 6089. Forever I’ve known that number and I’ve called that number.”

When Pescaia gave birth to triplets, she named one of the girls after Olivia. Olivia the namesake is now 20 years old and made Olivia the great-aunt most proud.

At Kalaupapa, Breitha eventually found the love of her life in her husband Johnny, a cowboy who died in 1973, after nearly 29 years of marriage. For years, Olivia and Johnny operated what was then the largest chicken farm on Molokai, providing the community with fryers and fresh eggs.

Breitha never had children, a painful choice that at the time she felt she had to make. Because parents affected by leprosy had to give up their children to be raised by others, Breitha said she simply couldn’t bear going through that. It was a decision that haunted her even in her last years.

After her book was published, Breitha was sought out more and more for her comments on human rights. She was part of a group of Kalaupapa residents invited to the United Nations and she was later placed into the Book of Lives and Legacies at the National Women’s Hall of Fame along with five other Kalaupapa women. Her peach linen wedding dress was displayed in an exhibit at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center.

She understood how her experiences of leprosy could be lessons for a society that alienates certain people because of fear and prejudice. She did a documentary with a young man who had AIDS and, along with women who had survived the Holocaust and the bombing of Hiroshima, was presented an award for her lifetime of courage.

Breitha remained bold and outspoken until her final breath. Just last month, she submitted written testimony asking that the U.S. Congress approve plans to establish a monument on the Kalaupapa peninsula honoring all 8,000 people who were sent there.

Her words were read to Congress on the morning of Sept. 28 — only hours after she had died. Even in death, the voice of Olivia Breitha spoke aloud of truth and dignity.