Sunday, May 24, 2009

Remembering Grandma

Yesterday me and my mom went to place flowers at her mother's grave. We stopped off at my mom's favorite flower shop Le Flowers at the corner of King and University.
My grandma is buried at the Honolulu Memorial Park.
I always get really, really sad when I think about our mortality. I cry and cry.This is me at 5 years old with my grandma. Grandma was born in Hanamaulu, Kauai. My mom said that she had a really hard life. She earned money by washing and ironing the clothes of the workers in the Filipino camp. She also raised chickens and grew her own vegetables to feed her family. My mom remembers her burning wood to heat the water for the furo.
Grandma only had a 4th grade education, but her two brothers were college grads. Yoshitaka Horiuchi was an attorney and Kenji Horiuchi was an executive at Boeing. Both brothers although U.S. citizens were sent to mainland concentration camps during the war. After being released Yoshitaka in total disgust, moved to Japan and never returned. He left behind a wife, Jane, who later married my mom's older brother, Clyde. I wish I could have my grandma back so that I could talk story with her.

4 comments:

Erick said...

I love the picture of you and your grandma. A moment in time captured forever!

jalna said...

Isn't it amazing. . . like going back 50 years and holding my grandma's hand again.

Betty Townsend said...

Jalna, I love the picture of you and your grandma. It is hard when we lose those who mean so much to us. I miss my grandmother too and my parents.

That floral shop looks really familiar. Hmm, maybe not. I think the name of the shop we always went to was University Florist. Its been so long I can't remember. The colors in the picture of the flowers is so vivid!!

SW said...

Thanks for sharing your photo and story of your grandmother. It brings back memories of my own grandmother the the stories she used to tell us.