Hardworking, lonely widow survived Lahaina wildfires… only to die in freak accident as she tried to piece her life back together

A hardworking, lonely widow survived last year’s deadly Lahaina wildfires, only to die in a freak accident while trying to get her life back on track.

The passing of Edralina Diezon on April 3 marked the end of several difficult and tumultuous years in which she worked tirelessly to provide for her family in the Philippines.

She worked 80 hours a week as a janitor and struggled to get to work for months after moving to a beachfront resort that had been converted into a shelter for displaced Maui residents. reports the New York Times.

Still, Diezon, 69, went to her job every day where she earned just $15 an hour and faced red tape when she applied for emergency aid.

Diezon’s difficulties began when her husband, who had long been the family’s breadwinner, died of colon cancer in 2014.

She got her green card and moved from Manila to Maui to join her brother, who was a taxi driver and owned a now-demolished seven-bedroom house where he rented rooms to other tenants, including his sister.

Diezon soon got a job at a cleaning company and also recycled aluminum cans.

Eventually, she raised enough money to send $500 to $1,000 every two weeks to her four children and six grandchildren in the Philippines. The money helped pay for improvements to her family home and her grandchildren’s education.

She also sent care packages every three months containing clothing, cologne, handbags and food.

But her life changed when Lahaina was ravaged by deadly wildfires.

She spent August 8, 2023, in a storage room, surrounded by mops, buckets and brooms as the fire continued to spread.

Diezon spent two days and two nights in the storage room. When she finally emerged, she was starving and disoriented. The neighborhood where she lived had disappeared.

She wandered the scorched streets for hours until she finally came across a police officer who took her to a hotel that had been converted into a shelter.

Diezon would eventually move to the beachfront Royal Lahaina Resort and Bungalow, along with more than 1,000 other displaced residents.

But the resort was more than four miles from her work, and to get there, Diezon had to walk the fast and dangerous Honoapiilani Highway.

After a while, Diezon started hitchhiking.

She ended up having Portia Marcelo, 43, drive her to appointments over the course of several days to get her glasses replaced, to the Department of Motor Vehicles to pick up an official state ID, and to a convenience store so she could wire money to her family.

Diezon also told the volunteers helping rebuild Maui that she needed transportation.

The volunteers then asked her more questions about the reconstruction, housing and her mental health before sending her to the next station.

Diezon then turned over her ID and bank account number to receive money from the People’s Fund of Maui, which was bolstered by donations from Oprah Winfrey and actor Dwayne Johnson.

Finally, she went to another hotel to inquire about emergency relief from Maui United Way, which directly distributed $1,000 cash payments to nearly 8,000 individuals.

But when she arrived, Diezon was sent to another location, where she could not go because she had to go to work.

Additionally, she couldn’t get money from Venmo donations because she didn’t have an account, leaving her scrambling to earn money.

It took months for the buses to return, but when they finally did, the last bus to her hotel stopped running. That was also when Diezon’s shift ended.

If she missed the ride, Diezon would have to search for a lift in the dark again.

Diezon’s family and friends said she became increasingly desperate in the spring as she and other evacuees were told they would have to leave Royal Lahaina in the summer.

Some decided to leave the island, but that meant that Diezon had to find a new job. After all, she had done everything she could to keep her job for seven months.

Diezon was scheduled to make a final transfer of money to her daughter, Eden Diezon Balobo, on April 1, just two days before she died in a horrific accident.

She left work on April 3, after dark, and was not wearing the white floral-print Hawaiian shirt worn by the other cleaners.

Instead, Diezon decided to wear black that evening.

In the dark, she had to cross the busy Honoapiilani Highway.

She also decided not to cross the crosswalk on Keawe Street, because she would have walked past the bus stop. Instead, she crossed the parking lot of the Lahaina Cannery Mall, where the bus driver was picking up passengers.

But when Diezon tried to catch the bus back to the hotel, she was hit by a 2017 Nissan Rogue and died — just three days before her 70th birthday.

After the murder, Diezon’s family in the Philippines fought to get her remains back home.

She setting up an online fundraiser to raise enough money to transport her remains out of the United States.

“Edralina moved to Maui nine years ago, driven by the dream of providing a better life for her family back home,” the report said.

‘She worked tirelessly, sacrificing her own comfort to support her children and provide them with opportunities she never had.’

However, the fundraiser only raised $475 and the family struggled to figure out a way to get the matriarch back home.

Fortunately, in May, Diezon’s brother discovered that his sister had a savings account.

It contained $19,000, enough to ship her remains to Manila and pay for her funeral.

At her funeral on June 17, Diezon’s casket was covered with white daisies. A framed photo of Diezon and a statue of Jesus were placed next to her body.