VIRIDITAS2: SOUL GREENING
These are excerpts from a conversation recorded by Sister Malia Dominica Wong, OP, with Nena Bargamento at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, Papaikou
I was born and raised on a Pepeekeo plantation (just north of Hilo on the Big Island). We had our own Catholic church, then called St. Joseph by the Sea. When I was 17, I left for Chico State University. There I met my first husband who was from Kuwait. My last name used to be Il Abrahim.
After we graduated, he got a job as a diplomat at the United Nations. We had a daughter whom we named Sharifa (meaning pure). But due to the conflict in the Middle East, I did not want her to stay in Kuwait. So, my daughter was raised in Pepeekeo. I promised my parents that my children would be baptized in the Catholic faith.
After my divorce, I came back to Hawaii and met my second husband. He was born and raised Catholic but had become a Mormon due to his first marriage. We were sealed in the temple. After the birth of our son Brian, he was baptized a Catholic. Thirty-four years later, my husband passed away. I traveled with my daughter to visit her dad in New York.
It was at a church in New York that we were visiting, that I felt something stir within me. When COVID-19 hit, I returned to Hawaii and isolated myself at my parents’ home in Pepeekeo. Being that I have a house in Hilo, La Salette Father Apolinario Ty did my reconciliation. I traveled back and forth to St. Joseph Church in Hilo until I decided to just stay here at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Papaikou. It was a hard decision as both of my parents’ funerals were held here.
When I first saw Father Stephen Macedo, barefooted, I said to myself, “Alright, I can come to church barefooted.” He really touched my heart and made me feel at home.
My children have since become my parents. We share everything. Every Thursday we FaceTime. My daughter scolds me sometimes, saying about my attire, “You go to church like that?” (She is a born-again Christian, but she follows her father’s Muslim ways.) My son told me that when he went to Iraq, he put on his tag “Baptist.” I asked him why. He responded that Baptists have more fun than Mormons. But he knows the scriptures.
One day, my kids said: “Mom, you are different. You are happier. What are you doing? Catholic?”
With stewardship, there is so much I have involved myself in. I see my aunties and uncles whom I used to help as a kid, still cleaning the church. Now, I clean the church with them and make sure they don’t sweep or do anything that might hurt them. They scold me too sometimes. If they don’t see me on Mondays and Wednesdays, my Aunty Carol will call and ask, “You OK?” They are so nice. Even Aunty Virgie and others keep bringing me food although I do not care for Filipino food.
Pope Francis said that receiving the Eucharist is not a reward, but for us sinners. He is a part of the list I made called “uplifted faith.” The first point is having gratitude for my parents and their faith in Pepeekeo.
