Run, Lola, Run!!

Easter took on a new meaning for me in 2011!  Two weeks before Easter I received an email from my niece in Hawaii........she sent me a little one inch personals ad she found in her local newspaper.....it said " Dudoit Family Reunion to be held on Molokai".  Johnette told me, "aunty I don't know if the name is spelled correctly but it looked right".  My heart skipped a beat.......would my father be there?? Is he still alive?? At the end of the announcement there was an email address you could use to get more information.

I thought about it excitedly at first as I read it to Dan! Then as the minutes ticked by I thought to myself.....do I really want to do this? How many times can you run into a brick wall Lola before you quit trying?  Dan convinced me to send the email........I explained to this person who I was and the fact that I didn't know if she was related to my father but gave her the information I knew.  The next morning I got an email back asking me to send her my mothers maiden name, the high school she attended and if she had a nickname.  I thought what the hell?? But I sent the email on........and in a couple of hours I received another email wanting my phone number.........long two weeks!!! I waited and waited and nothing!! Checked my email a hundred times a day even from work cause I didn't care if I got fired at that point!!

Finally the day before Easter Sunday and I got a phone call.........the voice said "May I speak to Lola"........I told her this is Lola.........she introduced herself as Joanne Noa, the person I had emailed! I was in shock at first and she began her story to me.......

"When I got your first email" she said......."I called my mother on the Big Island and read it to her."She told me that it was her mothers idea to email me back for the other information on my mother. When she read that email to her mom she said there was an Oh My God on the other end of the phone and slowly she said......"Joanne thats your cousin.......she is my brothers daughter!!!" Joanne told me that she was so excited that my father had looked for me for most of his life.  She then asked for my phone number and excitedly called my Dad and gave it to him. That morning she told me he called me and said "She must not want to talk to me Joanne cause I have been calling and calling and leaving messages and she has not called me back"......she told me that she apologized to him and told him how sorry she was to have involved him in this mess!  And she said they both cried and when she hung up she decided she would email me......as she brought my emails up she noticed my phone number.......I had given her an 805 area code and Hawaii is 808 and she realized that she didn't give him the area code cause she thought I was in Hawaii!!! Joanne called her mom to fill her in on her talk with her uncle and her mother told her to call the number first and make sure........thats how I met Joanne!! We talked and cried for about an hour and she told me let me call your Dad and give him the news and your correct number!!

The next ring of the phone almost caused a stroke.......I knew it would be HIM!!  As I put the phone to my ear I could feel my hands trembling........he said, "Can I speak to Lola?" and I answered........."This is Lola" and we both started to cry and he said to me......"This is Charles Dudoit and I am your father!"........Will I ever forget the sound of those words??? Not as long as I breathe!! We cried together and talked about everything under the sun for the next two hours. When I hung up the phone, I cried off and on the rest of the day!! I had finally found my FATHER!! There are not many words that would describe how I felt or how elated I was........I had to wait till I was 61 years old to find my Dad and he was 81 and we were both still alive and well !!

I thought later that afternoon that Dan was trying to take my mind off of all of this and he told me "we need to go to town to buy our rabbits. Rabbits??? What the hell do you have in that pipe??? He says to me....."Lola its an Easter tradition that we hide chocolate rabbits to hunt on Easter morning!" Whatever.......... ok, I'll pacify him !! We walked into Rite Aide and started looking at the chocolate rabbits.......he immediately found this Reese's peanut butter rabbit that was like 15 inches tall !!! What the hell??........lol  I kept looking and all of a sudden I noticed my VERY favorite candy in the whole wide world!!! PEEPS!!!! As I got closer I realized the color of the box was different.......IT was different........they were SUGAR FREE!!! OMG I grabbed all five boxes!! I told him.....I don't like chocolate I want these! He said ok and we checked out........

Later that night he went to bed and I thought, hmmm......I'm gonna try one of those sugar free peeps.......lol  But I couldn't find them! When I finally went to bed I asked him......"what did you do with my peeps?" He said......"the Easter Bunny hid them already"........he asked me didn't the Easter Bunny hide his?.......NOPE and the Easter Bunny ain't dealin with racoons to hide it tonight!! In the morning I got up real early and he asked me where I was going......."to help that fricken rabbit hide your stuff!!"  Now while I was out here looking for somewhere to hide it I realized I had not come upon my own Peeps.......but I hid it and went on to tell him to get up so we could find our stuff!! I was dyin to try one of them sugar free peeps!!! We came out to the deck and I had my camera in hand........told him you go first! So it took him awhile but he finally found his Reese's rabbit.  Then he said give me the camera and you find yours.........I looked everywhere I had not tried to hide his and could not find anything........I saw an ice chest under the deck but didn't think he would have put it in there surely but I pulled on it and when I opened it there was a little 5 x 7 wooden box inside........I lifted it out and opened it up and there were my Peeps and a ring box and when I turned around he was on his knee asking me to marry him!!!  I cried even harder than I did the day before but I looked at his face and I could not tell him NO.......I said YES! OMG.......the last 24 hours had just overwhelmed me!!  We sat on the edge of the deck and I told him......."its like all my life I have considered myself one of Gods jesters......when he needed a break from war and hunger and strife all over the world he would throw something at me, sit back and say, lets see what Lola can do with this!! And he would take a break from everything else and let me entertain him!!"  Today I feel like God woke up Friday morning and said......"hmmm, I think its Lola's turn......She can have her FATHER, she can have a new HUSBAND and she can have SUGAR FREE PEEPS!!!!"  Could there be a more perfect  morning?? Could there be more of a reason to break out in song?? "Here comes Peter Cottontail......hoppin down the bunny trail..........lol