Justina Mahilum Kennedy

“Christy” or “Tinay”, as she was affectionately known by close friends and family, was born Thursday September 16, 1943 to the late Santiago and Serapia Mahilum. The third eldest of twelve siblings, Justina was born in a cave in the mountains where her family – and other families from their small village – hid amidst the Japan invasion of the Philippines during WW II.

Justina, along with her husband Pete, loved to travel. There was a period of time when she and Pete would go to Hawaii at LEAST once a year. They also took a long trip to explore Europe, from which Justina regaled her children with excited stories of all the wonderful food she got to try! Her most entertaining story is one where she had mixed feelings about the Moulin Rouge dinner show in France. She had what she described as the most delicious dish, made of salmon, all the while assuring you she did NOT really even like salmon. The problem was the show, in which there were live “you-know-whats”. She would never say the word “snake”.

Justina loved food. She loved to watch cooking shows, and would often ask Pete or one of their kids to print out recipes from her favorite shows. Sometimes she made these recipes as written. Other times, she improved them greatly! Dining out was a treat she never passed up. She also never passed up free packets of raw sugar on the restaurant table – she loved raw sugar. Packets would be unloaded at home, but you could bet money that there was at least one, if not two, “emergency” packets tucked somewhere inside her voluminous purse.

Justina also loved plants, and was a natural botanist. Her black-thumbed daughter, Ann, brought many a near-dead – and some thought-to-be dead – plants into her care. It was like giving your plant to Jesus, that’s how miraculous her green thumb was. Her backyard was filled with tenderly loved orchids, towering fertile banana, mango, and sapote trees, various vegetables, and a curated herb garden. Thankfully, her green thumb did get passed down to her daughter, Tina, who also loves to garden.

Justina loved, most of all, to laugh. And to make people laugh. She was a fantastic storyteller, her childrens’ favorite stories being those of her growing up in the Philippines. The antics she and her compadres got into are novel-worthy, reminiscent of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Her children made her laugh quite often, most especially her youngest, Jon, who could make her laugh with just a look – in which they seemed to share a private joke. Mostly, she made her children laugh with outlandish and dramatic narratives of both past and present shenanigans of herself, her late husband Pete, her siblings and cousins, and – her favorite – her grandchildren. Oh, and her granddog, Kokai.

Justina is survived, is loved immensely, and will be missed greatly by her three children Tina, Ann, and Jon, and their spouses Rick, Scott, and Kim, her ten grandchildren Mitchell, Daniel, Noah, Mercedes, Mahlia, Nalani, Jade, Kaitlyn, Avery, and Gage, and her five great-grandchildren Rowan, Connor, Kip, Genasee, and Callaghan.