Charlotte Maria Wilmington's Obituary
Charlotte Wilmington Obituary
Charlotte Maria Wilmington, 82, passed away on March 11, 2020, after a four-year battle with appendicial cancer. Charl, the fourth of five children, was born on August 9, 1938, to Friedrich and Frieda Bayer, in Unterpfaffenhofen, Bavaria, in Germany. At the age of 14, she left school to work, first at a potato farm, then for a cobbler, and finally, was sent to Switzerland to live, and learn the trade of a sales clerk (store manager) to help support her family after the war. Back in Germany, she managed a national grocery chain store, until she met and married her husband, Kaipo, in 1958. They left Germany in 1959, and moved to Wailuku, Maui to be near her in-laws. She was a supportive military wife, and moved her family to California, Louisiana, and Texas where Kaipo was stationed, and returned to Maui while he completed three tours of duty in Korea and Vietnam. Upon Kaipo's retirement from the military in 1972, they found their forever home, and moved down to Ma'ili, where she continued to raise her family. In 1977, feeling restless, she got a bicycle, found a job at the Inafuku Egg Farms, and later, Maile Poultry, and could be seen daily riding her bike to and from, work.
She loved to travel; often visiting her friend, Ursula, in Minnesota, her brothers in Australia, and twice revisiting her hometown in Germany to meet up with friends and family from her youth. In Germany, she traveled to Frankfurt, drove to Munich, Austria, and to the Dolomites in Northern Italy. While in Minnesota, she traveled to the Badlands, Devil's Tower and Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota. She went on a road trip from Minnesota to Florida with Ursula, visiting the Wisconsin Dells, Graceland, New Orleans, Alabama, Tampa, Punta Gorda, Ft. Myers, and down to Sanibel and Captiva Islands. Her most memorable trip was taken in 2015, where she traveled to New Zealand and Australia with her grandson, Kaipo, daughter, Pualani, and best friend, Ursula, and her husband, Harry. She was planning on a return trip to Aotearoa, when a ruptured appendix, followed by a cancer diagnosis in 2016, brought travel to an abrupt end.
Charlotte was preceded in death by her husband, Edward "Kaipo". She is survived by her son, Kalani (Edwina), daughter, Pualani; 4 grandchildren: Kaipo Wilmington, Gina Kaina, Leah (Chris) Watson, Shayna Kaina; 10 great-grandchildren; and brother, Walter (Helene) Bayer.
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