Doris Elfriede Reichert's Obituary
On October 11, 2024, surrounded by her family, Doris Elfriede Reichert passed on after 89 years living a life she so cherished. Until falling ill three months prior, she was blessed with good health, a sharp, playful, spirited mind, and an immense joy and appreciation of life.
Doris is survived by the pride of her life and, she would say, her greatest life achievement: her family of three daughters, Marcelle Loren, Isabelle Moonan (Larry), and Malia Espinda, her grandchildren Nicole Kirk (Andrew), Michael Kume, Gabriella Molina, Liam Barnard, Kevin Barnard, and Kamaile Manol, and great-grandchildren Logan and Riley Kirk. She was the eldest of three daughters born to her beloved parents, Erna and Philipp Reichert, who passed away young during the era of World War II in Germany. Doris is also survived by both her sisters, with whom she shared a life-long bond, Brigitte Kriegel (Klaus) and Karin Diedert (Peter), and their children and grandchildren.
Orphaned and out of the shadow of war, Doris migrated from Germany to Hawaii at the age of 24, as a young bride and new mother, in 1959-the year of statehood. She’s said that upon stepping off the plane, she received a flower lei and saw a scene of such beauty in the evening moonlit sky, she vowed in that moment to live in the islands forever.
Not yet speaking the English language, and still sewing her own dresses and bikinis, Doris was determined to help support her family. She simultaneously learned English and studied Math and Real Estate, completing a high school equivalency through a night program at Farrington High School. Doris could be seen studying while her daughters played in the sand next to her at Nanakuli Beach. She spoke of overcoming her shyness by walking house to house in our Aiea Heights neighborhood, asking residents if they wished to buy or sell a home, and finding that local people warmly embraced her with her German accent. She embodied the American dream as a young immigrant, eventually starting her own realty company, and later one of the first bed-and-breakfast agencies in the islands. She was ever grateful to the local people of Hawaii, who healed the wounds of her wartime childhood by imbuing her with such warm Aloha and grace.
In her final years, she would holoholo between family on O'ahu, where she loved sitting under the ironwood trees at Kailua beach breathing in fresh air, and living on her own in Waimea on Hawaii Island, in her old cottage with the gazebo, gazing at the cows roaming Hoku'ula Pu'u (Buster Brown Hill) and caring for her wild chickens. She also loved to bake and share her wonderful, dense, German breads and cakes with others. In her characteristic optimism, she believed she might still have another lifetime to go and equipped her kitchens accordingly!
We were blessed with her wisdom, strength, self-determination, deeply caring, loving nature, and rascally humor to the very end. Doris died with courage and dignity, just she had lived. In her final days, Doris wanted all to know she died with happiness in her heart to have loved and been loved by her family and community. Though we deeply miss her, Doris is still with us in our hearts, forevermore.
What’s your fondest memory of Doris?
What’s a lesson you learned from Doris?
Share a story where Doris' kindness touched your heart.
Describe a day with Doris you’ll never forget.
How did Doris make you smile?
