By Denise W., October 15, 2020 — Yesterday was the anniversary of six years that my mother went to be with the Lord. First of all, I was not sad. I’ve decided to do a family tradition. I ordered Chinese food, specifically egg foo young, and we listened to songs from The Supremes, and the reason I did that was that it brought back good childhood memories of when my mother would take me to this nice Chinese restaurant. As a little girl, I would always order shrimp egg foo young and the music would be in the restaurant of Diana — no not Diana Ross — just The Supremes, before she became Diana Ross, which is a whole different set of music. So I played that, I put it on a playlist. I had dinner with my daughter (the Chinese food egg foo young) and we had the Supremes music playing. So I said to my daughter, “This is such a pleasant memory that I had with my mother, that maybe we’ll continue this as a tradition.” And so that worked out well. I wasn’t sad like I thought I would be. And I would like to read a poem from that my mother and I and brother went to Hawaii, Oahu, and my mother was so happy to go, she sent this poem to me. She said when we arrived:
Aloha
Aloha means farewell to thee
Aloha means goodbye
It means until we meet again
Beneath a tropic sky
Aloha means good morning
And always to be true
But the best thing that Aloha means is
I love you
So when she said the poem it brought a lot of happiness, we were in the midst of such beauty in Hawaii. She was in awe of the ocean, the Pacific Ocean was just so beautiful. And, we’re standing there by the ocean, we took walks, even the place that we stayed in, which was in the Hilton Hawaiian Village was beautiful. In fact, when we went there to check-in, I had ordered just one room but they gave us a suite, which was really good. Two separate bathrooms, a separate bed, and a bathroom for my brother. We had a balcony. They upgraded our reservation, in other words, that was really good. The Hilton Hawaiian Village is very pretty. So we stood on a balcony we would see a couple of cruise ships coming through; that was really interesting to see. My mother saw a dove. A dove actually landed in the bathroom and my mother thought that was very spiritual, so she enjoyed that.
In Hawaii, I wanted to talk about, well the dancing. The hula dancing was great. At the Hilton Hawaiian Village, we could literally step out of the door and right onto the beach of Waikiki, so that made for very interesting fun. We’re at the beach, and Hawaiian Village, it is a village. It’s full of cultural things to do, things to buy, and it teaches you the history of Hawaii, so it’s very interesting to walk through the village.
I think this is a funny story. My brother who’s pretty tall, for some reason they thought we were rich or something because they asked my brother if he was a famous basketball player. So we said, “Yeah, yeah.” But he was a regular guy, and next thing I know he left for a while, and I don’t know where he went. But I mean I just found it hilarious that he went and embraced what they thought he was, a basketball player. I don’t know, that was kind of funny to me.
We had a party in Hawaii. The people that sponsored it was District council 33, the union. It was a meeting that basically takes place every four years, and they decide the city in the United States that it will be in, and people from all over the United States are there from every city in the state. There were hundreds of people there representing their city and state. I went to the meetings and I really enjoyed it. That’s the reason that I was able to go there. With a $6,000 stipend, we were allowed to fly first class, but when I found out that to fly first class was so expensive, I asked a travel agent, “Well how much would it cost to get 3 coach seats?” and believe it or not, it was cheaper to get three coach seats than it was for one ticket first class. So that’s how I was able to squeeze my mother and brother in. I just thought it was a good time. We went to this bar, my mother enjoyed some dancing and music and singing, so I thought that was fun.
What else do I want to say about Hawaii? I guess Hawaii is just so peaceful. I think that’s why we loved it and enjoyed it. The people are laid back. The people are friendly. And it was just a sense of not having to rush, not having to, well obviously I was not going to work, I was on vacation. My brother was on vacation. My mother was retired. But the sense of we could make up our day as it goes along. The nights were beautiful in Hawaii and of course the dancing.
What we did not like was the food in the luau. It was very traditional, the poi, and I don’t remember everything else but we didn’t like it. It’s okay, because we were able to eat at other places. But I understand now in Hawaii that they have Americanized it more, so it’s more beef and things that we eat a little bit more as Americans, so I thought that was good. I guess the only other thing about the story that I thought was really fun- the trip was in August, in August I work near JC Penney’s. I actually work for the City of Philadelphia. I walk down through the Gallery and Penney’s had this great summer sale. So I was able to buy my mother and I matching outfits for Hawaii, so that was really good, and at a very good price because again it was at the end of the summer. We looked nice, and I guess the happiness that my mother had and the quality vacation, we were just so happy. So grateful, my mother was smiling and taking the people in. It was just one of the best times we’ve ever had as a family.