Don't seem to have current contact info for you, Jennifer. Send me a note at mbursem@gmail.com and let me know how you and your family are doing.
This website was created in celebration and memory of our loved one, Jessica Keiko Kawasuna Saiki, 85, born on August 29, 1928 and passed away on February 21, 2014. Please share your memories, annecdotes and experiences, remembrances, and lessons learned that add to the legacy Jessica leaves behind.
3/22/15 update: We have renewed this memorial website page forever as a lasting tribute to the memory and accomplishments of our mother. We miss her greatly but Jessica lives on in our hearts and minds thanks to a wealth of experiences shared and lessons learned from her. We hope you will continue to post your thoughts and photos with us. Thank you.
With love and appreciation,
from the children of Jessica Keiko Kawasuna Saiki
Tributes
Leave a tributeDon't seem to have current contact info for you, Jennifer. Send me a note at mbursem@gmail.com and let me know how you and your family are doing.
Mrs Saiki helped keep me sane as a child. My dysfunctional family was a close second to the Saiki family. I thank them, and mostly Mrs Saiki for showing me that life could be good. Thank you, Mrs Saiki, for helping me have a wonderful life. And thank you for having a wonderful daughter I can call my friend.
Working on getting “Keiko’s Crazy Road Trip” (based on a true story about your trials and tribulations with dad over retirement plans to buy an Airstream travel trailer) into production. Just waiting for the Writers Strike to settle before we can go full steam on making this film!
Much love as always,
from your eldest daughter, Lorel Keiko Saiki
I created this fundraiser because my mother, Jessica Keiko Kawasuna Saiki, artist / author / painter / poet / composer / musician / soprano vocalist / all-time great mother, was a long-term breast cancer survivor for over 25-26 years thanks to the cancer research study she participated in, testing Tamoxifen. It is a beautiful way to celebrate and commemorate her life on the occasion of my birthday.
To honor my mother’s bravery and determination to fight cancer and continue to live a long and productive life, I'm asking for donations to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. They are one of the world's premier institutions dedicated to the treatment and study of cancer. Committed to exceptional patient care, leading-edge research, and superb educational programs, they provide patients with the best care available today while working to discover more effective ways to prevent, control, and ultimately cure cancer in the future.
Please give, so that others may benefit and live. Link to donate to Facebook’s Fundraiser page for Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center: https://www.facebook.com/donate/745875923915025/
With much love and gratitude, from her daughter, Lorel Keiko Saiki
It is for personal listening only but if anyone is interested, please email me at lksaiki5@gmail.com.
From her eldest daughter, Lorel Keiko Saiki
With love and kind remembrance from the Saiki children
“Life is made up of a few moments all strung together like pearls. Each moment is a pearl, and it is up to us to pick the ones with the highest luster. If we do not have time to do great things, take a few gentle moments and do small things in a great way.” ― Joyce Hilfer
With Love to you and yours,
Paula & Mike
Love from your daughter, Lorel Keiko Saiki
Love and Aloha to you all,
Lorel
I remember a Christmas when her plans to go to California fell through and she ended up with us for a traditional Greek dinner. I'm sure it wasn't what she was used to, but she was a good sport about it.
My prayers are with you all.
Aloha Oe- till we meet again.
Thank you for sharing your mother/grandmother's story with us. What an amazing artist; her paintings are absolutely beautiful! Very inspirational and a reminder to all of us to live life to the fullest each and every day.
Suzanne- neighbor, Orinda, CA.
Although we've never met your mother, her talents and impressive character show through her children.
person with a beautiful smile. Rest well, Jessica, in the arms of our gentle Father.
Late into the evening hours after the dinner dishes are washed and dried, the children are in bed and the house is settled in for the night, she begins a new episode in a book of tales larger than life, beyond her scope of vision as housewife and mother. The English major consumes novels with a feverous energy. These books journey readers somewhere beyond reality, and the escape bring her closer to the "Walden" that she's always dreamt of. On her nightstand lays a dictionary and a pad of paper used to record new words that pass her way. As a married woman and mother of four she has traveled the familiar road of family living. Maybe that's the reason that she finds time to paint, it is an abstract impression of what things could be and not as everyone else sees them.
Fast forward to 2014, I am bed side watching and observing my mother as she waits to walk with the Lord. She leaves us with a legacy of purpose having survived an intense battle with metastatic breast cancer 27 years ago. As an author, artist, singer, songwriter, composer, humanitarian and mother, I reflect in awe how she has lived life to the fullest in her golden years. It has been a blessing to have known her and it will be an honor to bid her aloha and goodbye per her wish for her children to accompany her home and sprinkle her ashes in Hilo.
Leave a Tribute
Don't seem to have current contact info for you, Jennifer. Send me a note at mbursem@gmail.com and let me know how you and your family are doing.
Mrs Saiki helped keep me sane as a child. My dysfunctional family was a close second to the Saiki family. I thank them, and mostly Mrs Saiki for showing me that life could be good. Thank you, Mrs Saiki, for helping me have a wonderful life. And thank you for having a wonderful daughter I can call my friend.