Remembering Maria
1949 – 2022

In memory of Maria Behlert, a devoted wife, a loving mother, a supportive sister, and a dear friend.

After a hard-fought battle with an aggressive cancer, Maria Luisa “Baby” Arboleda Behlert passed away while in hospice care at home with her family on March 20, 2022, at the age of 72. She is survived by her husband of forty two years, Joseph Behlert, their son Alex Behlert, her daughter Lorraine Rodriguez, and her first born, Augusto Decastro. Maria had a radiant smile that lit up any room she was in and we all knew how much she loved her family.

Maria was born on November 7, 1949, in Iba, Philippines, to father Godofredo Arboleda and mother Conchita Miclat Arboleda. She was the third child of a large family with 2 sisters; Susan Marcial and Cristy Eblamo, and 7 brothers; Luisito, Pablito, Godofredo Jr., Exequiel, Roberto, Cesar, and Ramir Arboleda.

Maria was an avid crafter and creator. She dabbled in pressed flowers, soap making, paper-making, and photography. Before every Christmas, Maria would make Christmas stockings for her nieces and nephews with her sewing machine. During the recent pandemic, she made face masks for her family using her own design. Maria’s most recent project was a calendar she gifted her family members adorned with her acrylic paintings on canvas of colorful birds.

Maria loved to garden. She began her adventure in gardening by planting all sorts of annual and perennial flowering plants in a small plot in the community garden near where she lived. When the other gardeners gave her all kinds of vegetable seeds, she got hooked on growing vegetables. She would plant different types of herbs and vegetables, especially those native to the Philippines. She dreamt of writing a book about fruits and vegetables grown in the Philippines but settled on creating a website and writing blog posts about them instead. Her website is https://maribehlla.com.

Her greatest joy came from cooking, and this was how she showed love. She took pleasure to put on parties, and instead of catering, she would plan the menu ahead of time and start cooking the day before the party. She made sure there was plenty of food for the occasion and enough for her guests to pack for home. She was proud in making delicious food using as many raw ingredients as possible. She made sure to pass on some of her recipes to her children, but they say they can never cook as well as their mother can.

Viewing and eulogies will be held at the Nuʻuanu Memorial Park & Mortuary starting at noon on Monday, April 11. A final memorial mass will be held at the Sts. Peter & Paul Church on Tuesday, April 12 at 10am, which is immediately followed by interment at her final resting place at 1pm. As a spouse of a US military veteran, Maria requested to be interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (Punchbowl).

The family would like to thank the Tripler Army Medical Center staff and St. Francis Hospice Care for their vigilant treatment. If you wish to donate directly to the family, a donation box will be available during the viewing or contact the family to make other arrangements.