A hardworking and lonely widow survived the deadly Lahaina wildfires last year, only to die in a freak accident while trying to rebuild her life.
Edralina Diezon’s death on April 3 marked the end of a difficult and tumultuous few years as she worked tirelessly to support her family in the Philippines.
She worked 80 hours a week as a janitor and struggled for months to find work after being relocated to a beachfront resort that became a shelter for displaced Maui residents. According to the New York Times.
Still, Diezon, 69, showed up every day for work that paid just $15 an hour and had to navigate red tape as she tried to get disaster relief.
Edralina Diezon, 69, survived the deadly Lahaina wildfires last year but died in a freak accident on April 3 while trying to rebuild her life.
Diezon’s difficulties began when her husband, the family’s longtime breadwinner, died of colon cancer in 2014.
She received her green card and moved from Manila to Maui to join her brother, who drove a taxi and owned a seven-bedroom house, now destroyed, where he rented rooms to tenants, including her sister.
Diezon soon got a job at a cleaning company and recycled aluminum cans as a side hustle.
Eventually, she managed to scrape together enough money to send between $500 and $1,000 every two weeks to her four children and six grandchildren in the Philippines, money she used to improve the family home and educate her grandchildren.
He also sent care packages filled with clothes, cologne, bags and food every three months.
Diezon’s difficulties began when her husband, the family’s longtime breadwinner, died of colon cancer in 2014.
But her life was turned upside down when deadly wildfires swept through Lahaina.
She spent August 8, 2023 hiding in a warehouse, surrounded by mops, buckets and brooms as the fire continued to spread.
Diezon would spend two days and two nights in the warehouse, and when she finally emerged, hungry and disoriented, the neighborhood where she lived had disappeared.
She wandered the charred streets for hours before finally meeting a police officer who took her to a hotel that had been converted into a shelter.
Diezon would eventually move into the beachfront Royal Lahaina Resort and Bungalow, along with more than 1,000 other displaced residents.
But the resort was about four miles from his job, and to get there, Diezon would have to walk the fast and dangerous Honoapiilani Highway.
After a while, Diezon resorted to hitchhiking.
Finally, Portia Marcelo, 43, spent a few days taking her to appointments to replace her glasses, to the motor vehicle division to get an official state identification card and to a grocery store so she could send money to her family.
Diezon hid in a warehouse for two days and two nights as wildfires raged across Maui.
Diezon also told volunteers helping to rebuild Maui that he needed transportation.
The volunteers then asked her more questions about rebuilding, housing and her mental health and then took her to the next station.
Diezon then handed over his ID and bank routing number to obtain money from the Maui People’s Fund, which was bolstered by donations from Oprah Winfrey and actor Dwayne Johnson.
Finally, she went to another hotel to inquire about disaster relief from Maui United Way, which was distributing direct cash payments of $1,000 to nearly 8,000 people.
But when she arrived, Diezon was directed to another place where she couldn’t go because she had to go to work.
She also couldn’t get money from Venmo donations since she didn’t have an account, forcing her to keep working hard to get money.
When he left, Diezón found his neighborhood in ruins.
She wandered the charred streets for hours before finally meeting a police officer who took her to a hotel that had been converted into a shelter.
It took months for the buses to return, but when they finally did, the last one heading back to his hotel stopped running at the same time Diezon’s shift ended.
If he failed, Diezon would have to go back to searching for transport in the dark.
In the spring, Diezon’s family and friends said she became discouraged when she and other evacuees were told they would have to move out of Royal Lahaina before summer.
Some decided to move off the island, but doing so would mean Diezon would have to look for a new job, after spending seven months doing everything he could to keep his job.
Diezon would make a final bank transfer to his daughter, Eden Diezon Balobo, on April 1, just two days before he died in a terrible accident.
He left work after dark on April 3 and was not wearing the white flower-print Hawaiian shirt uniform worn by the other cleaners.
Instead, Diezon decided to dress in black that night.
Diezon died while trying to cross the busy Honoapiilani Highway on April 3.
In the dark, he had to cross the busy Honoapiilani Highway.
He also decided not to use the Keawe Street crosswalk (which would bypass the bus stop) and instead opted to cross through the Lahaina Cannery Mall parking lot, where the bus driver picked up passengers.
But as Diezon attempted to take the bus back to the hotel, she was struck by a 2017 Nissan Rogue and killed, just three days before her 70th birthday.
After the events, Diezon’s family in the Philippines fought to bring his remains back home.
They create an online fundraiser to raise enough money to transport his remains from the United States.
“Edralina moved to Maui nine years ago, driven by a dream of providing a better life for her family back home,” she said.
‘She worked tirelessly, sacrificing her own comfort to support her children and give them opportunities she never had.’
But the fundraiser only raised $475, and the family was left scrambling to figure out how they could bring the matriarch home.
Fortunately, Diezon’s brother found out in May that his sister had a savings account.
It contained $19,000, enough to send his remains to Manila and pay for his funeral.
At her funeral on June 17, Diezon’s coffin was draped in white daisies and a framed photograph of Diezon stood next to her body and a statue of Jesus.