Masae "Beatrice" Akinaka wasn't feeling quite well enough to attend her 100th birthday celebration back in the neighborhood where she had spent nearly all of the past century, but her presence on Olu Street in Kaimuki was as strong and constant yesterday as it had ever been.

The eldest of Kenjiro and Fusa Akinaka's six children, Akinaka now lives at Palolo Chinese Home a few miles away. But she is hardly forgotten by the families that have lived on the quiet road for generations and who have stubbornly, steadfastly preserved their own understanding of what it means to be neighbors.

Hannah Knell, 83, from a few doors down, was among the 50 family, friends and neighbors who showed up to fete the woman they warmly consider not just the matriarch of her clan but a big sister and aunty to generations of Olu Street kids. Chris and Juliette Ling from across the street were also there. So was 92-year-old Patsy Yamane, whose family settled just down the road in 1937 and never left.

"You see that?" asked Knell, gesturing to the tall common mango tree across the street. "Bea planted that herself when her family owned the lot."

The party, a day earlier than Akinaka's actual birth date, was organized by Akinaka's nephews Ken, Vance and Bruce. Ken and Vance Akinaka now live on the property.

"I always think of her as my grandma," said Vance Akinaka. "She is very loving, very sweet. She's the kindest person we know."

And tough.

Bea Akinaka's father, who spent six years in the pineapple fields working off the contract that allowed him to emigrate from Japan to Hawai'i before becoming a stone mason, died when Akinaka was still young. Her mother, a picture bride, died when Akinaka was 20, leaving her to care for her five younger siblings.

Only Akinaka and youngest sister Jessie survive today, but the family name is firmly established.

Akinaka's brother Isaac (father of the three nephews who organized the party) served as a medic with the 100th Battalion in World War II, earning bronze and silver stars. Another brother, Kenzo, was a captain at the McCully Fire Station.

To support the family, Bea Akinaka, who never married, worked as a house cleaner and seamstress, walking to jobs as far away as Hawai'i Kai because she didn't drive and often couldn't afford to take a trolley.

Akinaka would later spend 25 years working in the cafeteria at nearby Liholiho Elementary School.

Friends say Akinaka's care extended beyond her brothers and sisters. They remember her rounding up neighborhood kids for excursions to Waikiki Beach.

"She was always very generous and very active," said Chris Ling, who recalled getting cooking lessons as a youngster from Akinaka.

Ken Akinaka said he couldn't recall a time when his aunt showed anger or frustration, even for the year and a half in high school when she cared for him and his brothers.

"That's just her," he said. "She's always happy and always positive."

Thanks to smart investments made on her behalf by brother Kenzo, Bea Akinaka was able to spend her retirement traveling around the world. Ken Akinaka said his aunt took a trip every three months. She visited Europe, toured Japan frequently, and walked along the Great Wall of China.

Once, Vance Akinaka recalled, she broke her arm passing through a security gate on her way to Korea but didn't tell anyone until she returned. The injury eventually required her to stay in the hospital. At age 85, it was her first hospitalization.

For all of her travels, friends say, Bea Akinaka built her true legacy close to home.

On Ola Street, where neighbors still stop and chat and exchange bags of fruit and keep an eye out for each other, Akinaka was a daily reminder that the important things could transcend time and change.

Every morning, Akinaka would make her way to the bus stop for her daily visit to Ala Moana Center or the Kaimuki business district. Several times a day, she would walk the block picking up fallen leaves and debris.

"I used to see her walking back and forth between telephone poles," Yamane said. "She just kept going as many times as she could. She said it was because she had to stay fit. She's a fighter."

Ken Akinaka said the family planned to take his aunt's cards and gifts to her at the home after yesterday's party. When that would be was unclear, as friends and neighbors lingered at the Akinaka home, ignoring the droplets of rain that splattered against tent tarps and awnings, to keep the party going through the late afternoon.

People still had stories to tell about Aunty Bea and about the street they call home.

"Things have changed in neighborhoods all around the island," Chris Ling said. "But here, time stops. We're still the same."

Bea Akinaka turns 100 today.