Run, Lola, Run!!

Now its only April and the family reunion on Molokai was scheduled for August!!  Would I be able to contain myself till then? I went to work and everyone I worked with was so happy for me......I had not realized in my fixation to find out about my own father......how many of my peers also did not know their biological fathers also!! I was amazed that some had not ever tried to find them.  Even more amazed cause some of them were not much younger than me. Well I was about the happiest woman on earth at that time!! Had already made plans to go to the reunion in Hawaii, had the man of my dreams wrapping his arms around me everyday and telling me how much he loved me and had a wonderful job that I had made some lifelong friends at and my world was pretty perfect.........

My next little adventure involved the Village jewelry store.........a REAL jeweler! Dan told me c'mon lets go pick out your ring! Well he told me that he had picked one out but he wanted me to pick one.  Outside the door of the jewelers I got very nervous, almost sick to my stomach!! I told him "I don't want to go in there"......he laughed and asked me why not.......I said to him, "Dan they have really nice rings at Walmart!" And I thought he was going to pass out!! lmao  He said, "Lola we are not going to Walmart so get inside the store" as he held the door open I could feel my knees were like jelly.  I wanted to cry but by then the lady saw me and was coming towards us.  I have never been big on jewelry  but have always thought that pearls were beautiful....since I have known Dan he has bought me pearls for every occasion and I have so many pearl necklace and earrings thats its to the point of being shameful !! But he told the lady that we were looking for an engagement ring with a pearl and she brought us a tray to look at and I know I was sitting there with my mouth dropped open and probably looked like I had NO Neck!! He asked me if I liked any of them and I pointed to one and he told me that was the same one he had selected when he was in there earlier.  As the lady was taking numbers off of it I picked up another from the tray and was looking for a price and found on the inside of the band written on the tiniest of pieces of paper and had to read and REread it several times and told Dan.........."NO wait!! I don't want that one"......."Why?" he asked.......and I whispered to him, "Do you know how much these things cost??" He just smiled and told the lady he wanted that one and we need it sized!

Two days later I came home from work and there it was in its beautiful box on the dining room table!  I remember my hand trembling as he put it on and it was THE MOST beautiful pearl I had ever seen!! I could not wait to go to work the next morning with it on my finger!!

Meanwhile I had many calls from my father!! We talked about when I was little and he would come to my town grammas house to see me.  He told me about him telling my gramma that he was going into the service and when he came home this would be the first place he comes to! He said that when he got home my grammas house was empty and we were both gone.......I cried he sounded so sad!! I told him the awful things my mother had told me growing up about him and his family and he said to me........"Lola, think about this a minute.  You were your grammas WHOLE world.......and if any of these things were true.......do you think she would have let me anywheres near you?"  I had to realize now at age 61 that all of my life I just took her word to be the truth! I think as a child you choose to believe what you hear because you are a child!  His thinking sounded so logical, why had I never thought of that?? Made me feel so dumb for a minute!!

Before you know it, it was August and I was packing to meet my father for the first time!! I remember thinking how grateful I was that he was still alive and how many years would I have with him before I would loose him again........and how I wanted to embed every minute I have with him deep inside my brain so I would never forget them even if Alzheimers sets in........lol

The drive to San Francisco was a long one.......I was like a child about to get a treat and I couldn't be still!!  Dan would ask, "do you need to stop for the bathroom"........."Nope, I'm fine" I just wanted him to drive faster!!  Our flight was right on time and the plan was to land in Honolulu meet my father and his wife Nan and then the four of us would immediately climb onto another plane and head for the reunion which would start the next day on Molokai!!  One day I will figure out how to add pictures to this blog......I spotted him from across the huge airport lobby from the pictures he had sent me and he spotted me too!!! We went into each others arms so tightly that we could not possibly be breathing!! We cried, laughed, and completely forgot that the whole world existed around us!! He and his wife Nan had brought snacks all my favorites and I was suddenly sooooo hungry!! We spent the next three days on Molokai meeting so many family members......I suddenly felt so much a part of a world I had only dreamed about for most of my life!! The people were wonderful, the food amazing, but as I looked around each day at the huge property the reunion was held on, I realized things like, my father grew up right here on this very spot!! There was a huge mango tree on the property that my father had planted when he was seven years old......we walked across the street to the ocean where Dad explained to us that as kids they made these holding ponds along the shore by diving and placing rocks to form walls that the fish would float into and then be captive for the family food supply.......so much to take into three days but I kinda floated through them on a cloud half afraid that someone would wake me up and it would have all been a dream! Molokai is a beautiful island not yet spoiled by hotels and fast food chains or huge supermarkets and shopping centers.......there is just one town, one hotel, local grocery stores, bakery, schools and just tons of folks that looked like me!!! hahaha

Sadly the reunion came to an end and we headed back to Honolulu for another week.  The first night back we were on Waikiki Beach for dinner and expected to meet one of my sisters.  My dads second  of four daughters was to join us for dinner and when she arrived she had picked up her sister who had had a drug problem for years and my father had not seen her in fourteen years!! The oldest Melanie and I bonded outside the resturant over a cigarette.......don't you know the two problem children would bond??? lol  But Laurie the second daughter also was charming very pretty and quite smart.......an RN who owns her own registry! He had twin daughters, the youngest also, Charlene and Carlene who both lived on the mainland, one in California and the other in Las Vegas.  It was definitely a week I will never forget!!  I took so many pictures that it was like a kid in Disneyland for the first time!!

That night we spent in Waikiki my father has a condo there and the next day we made the trip to the north side of the Island to his beach house.  It was amazing!! Setting right on the oceans edge with the waves splashing the rocks off of the deck.  I spent the rest of the time there on that deck trying to memorize every minute of this trip so far and knowing in my heart that EVERY dream I had in my life had been fullfilled that week! It was not hard to say goodbye at the airport because I knew that as healthy as my father is I would make many trips back home to spend time with him and my world could go on "climbing on that painted pony and let the spinning wheel ride"..........