Boots Lupinui

And yet they had never met.

They had never even heard of each other.

I didn't know how that was possible.

But then it hit me that I can tell the finished story with one last shot.

So I tell the crew to go get the first lady, the one who grew up on Oahu.

Take her to the family graveyard in Kohala.

It's a beautiful little plot.

She'd never been there before.

Don't mic her up.

Ask her to wait in the car, because I don't want her to explore the graveyard on her own.

I go to get the other lady, the one who grew up in Kohala.

And I asked her to come back to the family graveyard to meet her cousin of hers for the very first time.

And she says yes.

And we filmed them meeting in the graveyard, hugging and kissing.

The one woman pointing out the graves of both women's shared ancestors.

They're holding hands and they're smiling and walking and talking and without microphones.

We don't get to know what they're saying.

That's not for us.

That conversation belongs to their family.

And it gives me chicken skin even now I think about the fact that the only people who heard those words were those two women and their ancestors.