Part Four-'Ohana, Chapters 17 & 18 Summary

Chapter seventeen opens in 1928. Both Rachel and Kenji are doing better than most residents in terms of the progression of their leprosy. A times Rachel finds it difficult to walk, and Kenji has had surgery on his eyelid. Kenji manages the Kalaupapa Store, and Rachel helps him, except on Thursdays when she works at Bishop Home.

Kenji used to send money home to repay the cost of his college education, but he stopped after years of no acknowledgment from his family. When he had to go to Oahu for surgery, his family did not visit, and upon his return he declared that Kalaupapa was home, not Oahu with the people that had forgotten him.

Bishop Home is falling apart due to age and lack of repair. Catherine, at age fifty-six, does the best she can. Mother Marianne died ten...