Nov. 28, 2009: Te’o and Kekua meet after Stanford’s 45-38 victory over Notre Dame in Palo Alto, according to the South Bend Tribune: “Their stares got pleasantly tangled, then Manti Te’o extended his hand to the stranger with a warm smile and soulful eyes.” Kekua, a Stanford student, swaps phone numbers with Te’o.
2010-2011: Te’o and Kekua are friends. “She was gifted in music, multi-lingual, had dreams grounded in reality and the talent to catch up to them” (South Bend Tribune). “They started out as just friends,” Te’o's father, Brian, told the Tribune in October 2012. “Every once in a while, she would travel to Hawaii, and that happened to be the time Manti was home, so he would meet with her there.”
Early 2012: Te’o and Kekua become a couple. They talk on the phone nightly, according to ESPN.
Some time in 2012: Kekua has a car accident somewhere in California that leaves her “on the brink of death” (Sports Illustrated). But when? Eight months before she died of cancer, in September, reports ESPN. “About the time Kekua and Manti became a couple,” reports the South Bend Tribune. April 28, reports SI.
June 2012: As Kekua recovers from her injuries, doctors discover she has leukemia. She has a bone-marrow transplant. (“That was just in June,” Brian Te’o told the South Bend Tribune in October of 2012. “I remember Manti telling me later she was going to have a bone marrow transplant and, sure enough, that’s exactly what happened. From all I knew, she was doing really, really well.”)
Summer 2012: Her condition improves. Kekua “eventually” graduates from Stanford, according to the South Bend Tribune. (A New York Times story, published Oct. 13, identifies her as a “Stanford alumnus.”) She soon takes a turn for the worse. At some point, she enters treatment, apparently at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, Calif. (In a letter obtained by Fox Sports published Oct. 25, Te’o writes to the parents of a girl dying of cancer: “My girlfriend, when she was at St. Jude’s in LA, she had a little friend.”)
Te’o talks to Lennay nightly, “going to sleep while on the phone with her,” according to Sports Illustrated. “When he woke up in the morning his phone would show an eight-hour call, and he would hear Lennay breathing on the other end of the line.”
Sept. 10, 2012: Kekua is released from the hospital; Manti’s father, Brian, congratulates her “via telephone” (South Bend Tribune).
Sept. 11-12, 2012: Te’o's grandmother dies in Hawaii. Later, Kekua dies in California. Or is it the other way around? “Te’o's girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, died Sept. 11 of complications from leukemia. His grandma, Annette Santiago, died after a long illness less than 24 hours later,” according to the Sept. 22 South Bend Tribune. No, Annette dies first, according to the Oct. 12 South Bend Tribune. In fact, Lennay lives long enough to express condolences over the death of Annette:
Less than 48 hours later [after Lennay's release from the hospital], at 4 a.m. Hawaii time, Kekua sent a text to Brian and Ottilia, expressing her condolences over the passing of Ottilia’s mom, Annette Santiago, just hours before.
Brian awakened three hours later, saw the text, and sent one back. There was no response. A couple of hours later, Manti called his parents, his heart in pieces.
Lennay Kekua had died.
Or does Kekua die three days later (New York Post)? Four days (ESPN, CBS)?
In any case, according to Te’o's interview with Gene Wojciechowski in a segment aired during the Oct. 6 episode of College GameDay, Lennay’s last words to Te’o were “I love you.”
Sept. 12, 2012 (morning): Te’o is informed of his grandmother’s passing (Sports Illustrated).
Sept. 12, 2012 (afternoon): Te’o is informed of Kekua’s passing by her older brother, Koa (Sports Illustrated).
Sept. 15, 2012: Te’o records 12 tackles in leading the Irish to an upset win over Michigan State.
Sept. 22, 2012: Kekua’s funeral takes place in Carson, Calif. (The Associated Press puts it in “Carson City, Calif.,” which does not exist.) Te’o skips the funeral, saying Kekua had insisted that he not miss a game (Los Angeles Times). Her casket is closed at 9 a.m. Pacific time, according to Te’o. That night, Notre Dame beats Michigan, 13-6, to go to 4-0, the school’s best start in a decade. Te’o intercepts two passes. After the game, he says of Lennay: “All she wanted was some white roses. So I sent her roses and sent her two picks along with that.” Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly awards the game ball to Lennay Kekua, handing it to Te’o to “take back to Hawaii.”
