Beauty and Tragedy Series

Molokai is gorgeous.

Below is the bay where people afflicted with Hansen’s disease (aka leprosy) were dropped off by small boats to live out their lives away from their homes and communities.

Children were separated from parents, husbands from wives, mothers from their children.

Molokai is obviously much more than just the site of human suffering. But that element of its past makes certain spots feel both sacred and haunted. Profane and beautiful.

Below are ruins from the research facility built by the government for Hansen’s patients and used from 1909-1913.

Almost none of it is visible now. The 20th century is not eternal.