Madhav and I have been loyal partners for the last 25 years, Madhav—known to many as the cookie lady—unexpectedly passed away in her home on Sunday, March 1, 2026. We have been lovers and friends for the last 25 years here on Maui, I was the one who came by and discovered the terrible news, and I was horrified. Losing her so suddenly has left a deep void in my life and in the hearts of everyone who knew her. She was a beautifully unique whimsical soul who brought joy and warmth to so many people over the years. Despite living at poverty level on HUD and snap Madhav was a very non materialistic, happy spiritual woman. much unlike most American woman I have met and to boot she loved giving everyone gifts, such as a $150 pair of boots she barely ever used gifting to a newly moved in neighbor. So in line with giving alot of her few belongings away as gifts she started baking dozens and dozens of the most delicious all organic gourmet cookies away to everyone and I mean everyone she'd meet. She was like a mad scientist with all her unique creations as that was one of her best talents was her extremely talented gourmet cooking skills.
The purpose of this fundraiser is to cover the cost of her cremation. Her son and daughter have not been located, and as her closest companion, I am now responsible for making sure she receives a respectful farewell. Every dollar raised will go directly to the mortuary for her cremation and nothing else. This is my way of honoring her memory and ensuring she is laid to rest with dignity.
Besides loving to bake the most yummy all organic cookies that she enjoyed sharing every where, even at her dental visits and many times at the Temple of Peace Sunday celebration she was the most spectacular out of this world Italian cook that would make every dish totally from scratch Her handmade pizzas were to die for. As rich as a lasagna with home made pesto and 3 italian cheeses.and many other suburb varieties, even gorganzola onion pizza, yum! Somehow even though the homemade crust was always made with organic spelt wheat flour every time it would have a new texture twist. They were so delicious that I would be humming 'ummmm' with each and every bite. She would take hours to perfect her pizzas and other delightful Italian creations, Oh yeah, BTW she sure was a feisty redheaded Italian woman, Momma mia!
Madhav loved animals and loved growing plants and raising cats too. We adopted a stray tomcat in Kihei who was super shy but we lured him in eventually by leaving a bowl of food at our doorway in Kihei. His name was Smoker and he was an indoor/outdoor cat which we preferred and when we moved to Haiku we brought him with us. We lived on the second floor so we built a simple tall ladder for him to come and go from a window of our apartment and eventually the bulldog next door got him and killed him so then immediately we ran to the Human Society and rescued an older cat, They do evenyually euthinize animals who don't get adopted in a certain amount of time there and older cats usually are shunned in contrast to kittens so we felt we were rescuing him and he was super wonderful. We decided now he would be an indoor cat as the bulldog still lived next door and we named him Bear, His hair was at first a normal short hair. .We decided to try feeding him raw foods only and he took to it right away and about within a month his mane grew dramatically like a lions mane and his tail and body hair also grew large and extra fluffy and he was so so soft like silk. We raised him for 10 more years solely on raw foods like egg yolks, chicken livers, Primal Foods frozen raw food nugs, chicken thighs and even chicken wings with the bones sometimes It is safe for cats to eat raw bones but if they are cooked then they are dangerous to eat as they splinter unlike raw bones. He was our all time favorite cat ever who would never purr at all in the daylight and only purr in the dark in bed with us. Upon his death again we immediately ran to the Humane society and adopted a stray cat that had been rescued from the huge Lahaina fire that burned the whole Maui town to a crisp.. His name was Boy who was a the opposite energy of Bear. Bear was super mellow, never once swiping at you. When we would bring Boy to the vet upon telling them his name is Boy then I would say 'that's his last name, his first name is Wild.' We named him Boy because that was Bears nickname as when we referred to Bear we would say 'the Boy' Boy from Lahaina was the wildest cat we lived with and he was even neutered, even wilder than Smoker who was not neutered.
Madhav had a troubled childhood for one she was almost 6 feet tall in 4th grade towering over all her schoolmates and a redhead to boot so the kids would tease her all the time especially since she had a deep voice for a woman. In addition her dad was a 6 ft 6 inch tall violent alcoholic and would beat up Madhavs mom, sometime Madhav said there was even blood. She grew up on Long Island NY and at age 15 ran away from home by herself to live in hippyville at the time Greenwich Village NYC in 1968, Thereafter she never discussed her life other than the fact that she was previously married many years ago when she was 20 and had had two children, still alive whom I never met as they never visited Maui. And later in life right before we met in 2001 she was living at the Osho Ashram in Pune,India for a year or more then in 2001 we got together till 2026 living here in Maui. I included some extra photos of her and they are visible if you click the lower right corner of the cover photo. It is hard to see the arrow but just click by the corner for more beautiful photos of Madhav..
Her death was caused by multiple comorbidities for the last 8 years in which I was her sole caregiver voluntarily and I do have a paid care-giving job also. I managed all her many government agencies as a rep for her and did all the shopping in town and online and would occasionally take her out for a joy ride as she was in so much pain that she stayed home most of the time lovingly caring for her cat and gardening. Madhav loved plants and animals
She passed at the age of 71 with her 72nd birthday in two months Her health problems 8 years ago began with very high blood pressure which she refused to take addictive poisonous pharmaceuticals but she would meditate at least an hour or ore a day to treat it somewhat then she developed shingles. The symptoms were painful open sores and blisters on the right side of her torso and like most they healed up in 3 weeks but there after developed very bad nerve pain in which she refused to take addictive strong narcotic drugs so she resorted to the minimal doses of non narcotic gabapentin which was less effective than the narcotics plus CBD oil and kratom, a natural non narcotic pain relieving plant
Gratefully we went through a period of years where I would photograph her every where we'd g as I am a great photographer and she is a fun animated photographic model and we have collected about 3500 photos thankfully that I can reminisce of all those great times we shared together They have been helping me greatly since her death as I have not been viewing them for a long time now. It is late and I am so tired I will have to review and edit and maybe add more tomorrow.
I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for donating. Even the smallest donations will be greatly appreciated. Much love and aloha for caring about our dear friend Madhav, the cookie lady. May she rest in peace.