Looking down at my necklace always reminds me of one of my favorite memories of my adventures with Kalea. A couple of days after Kalea saved me from my fall, we were out on the south shore of Oahu surfing. The tide was low, and at the time my necklace was on a much longer chain. The surf kept lifting my necklace up so I almost lost it a few times. Kalea shouted over the loud surf that I should have left it on the shore with our other things. But I couldn’t. This necklace is a family heirloom. When I was little, my grandma told me a story about my great grandmother and it went something like this:
A long time ago, my great-grandmother was outside of her house tending to her garden. Great-grandma’s garden was always flourishing with bright red torch ginger and heavenly scents like gardenia and plumeria filling the air. On this particular day, a small gecko was walking through the neighborhood and stopped to appreciate great-grandma’s garden. He had a look of a bittersweet happiness about him, so great-grandma asked, “What troubles you young gecko?” He said he longed to start a garden of his own, but had no money to do so. Great-grandma was a firm believer in helping out your neighbors and also believed surrounding yourself with nature’s natural beauty could bring happiness to your every day life. So, she says, here I will give you one of my torch ginger plants, as well as $1.30 to buy his own plants from the local gardening store. The young gecko was so grateful he said, “I’ll pay you back I promise!” Great-grandma thought nothing of his promise because she just wanted to help the young boy.
A couple of weeks later, the young gecko returned to great-grandma’s garden with a beautiful pendant that shimmered with silver and blue. He said he had made it especially for her. Great-grandma was so touched; she always kept the pendant safe. She passed the necklace down to my grandma, and my grandma passed it to me as a reminder of how important it is to help others.
Yoko and Kalea 