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Esmina Kamaka
May 3, 1937 - August 12, 2015
On May 3rd, 1937, Aaron and Olive Barnett happily welcomed into the world a beautiful baby girl and like every parent, they saw within her eyes possibilities. The fruition of dreams. They imagined that she could be anything she wished to be. Her name would be Esmina and along the course of her sometimes difficult life she would change lives.
She would boldly relinquish the security of her parent’s home in Kingston, Jamaica and with her parents tearful encouragement, she would set a path across the ocean to first the U.S and eventually Canada. Here she married Lee Kamaka Sr., the devoted man that followed her from her homeland. Here she had children that she would sacrifice and without reservation, devote her every breath to. Esmina would spend her working life helping kids without homes. Assisting the elderly, mentally and physically disabled live their lives with the dignity they deserved. She would come home weary yet blessed. Undaunted, she would do it again the very next day devoted to those that were socially abandoned. Their helping hands.Their friend. Their confidant. This is who she was.
After a long battle with diabetes and it’s complications, our mother succumbed to those complications. She fought harder than anyone we know. Esmina Kamaka defied the odds outliving the estimated time one lives doing dialysis. Surviving amputation surgeries doctors said she would not. She looked on bravely. Seldom did she shed a tear and was always quick to smile. Sadly on Wednesday, August 12th, Esmina could fight no more. It was her time. She fortunately went peacefully and gently and for this we will be eternally grateful.
Please join us not in the mourning her death but in the celebration of her life.
She would boldly relinquish the security of her parent’s home in Kingston, Jamaica and with her parents tearful encouragement, she would set a path across the ocean to first the U.S and eventually Canada. Here she married Lee Kamaka Sr., the devoted man that followed her from her homeland. Here she had children that she would sacrifice and without reservation, devote her every breath to. Esmina would spend her working life helping kids without homes. Assisting the elderly, mentally and physically disabled live their lives with the dignity they deserved. She would come home weary yet blessed. Undaunted, she would do it again the very next day devoted to those that were socially abandoned. Their helping hands.Their friend. Their confidant. This is who she was.
After a long battle with diabetes and it’s complications, our mother succumbed to those complications. She fought harder than anyone we know. Esmina Kamaka defied the odds outliving the estimated time one lives doing dialysis. Surviving amputation surgeries doctors said she would not. She looked on bravely. Seldom did she shed a tear and was always quick to smile. Sadly on Wednesday, August 12th, Esmina could fight no more. It was her time. She fortunately went peacefully and gently and for this we will be eternally grateful.
Please join us not in the mourning her death but in the celebration of her life.