Hawaii, Our Love

My name is Carolyn and I grew up in Hawaii and now reside in San Mateo, California. My love story begins in 1976 when disco clubs were popular and where most young locals in Hawaii met their significant other. That is where I first set eyes on my husband, Gary who is a native Californian, at a disco club called Foxy Lady in Waikiki. I was sitting at a table with my friends and this guy with long dark brown hair, golden tan and wore a brown colored silk dress shirt approached me. For him it was love at first site but for me it took a while. For the time of his stay we talked about the culture and things you did in Hawaii, in a way I was like his tour guide. His sense of humor and gentleness that captured my heart and I knew he was the one or "Mr. Right". We had a long distance relationship for about 2 years before we got married. In 1978 Gary asked me to live with him which was the "hip" thing in the 70's, but for me it was emotionally hard because it was against my father's wishes. I left for California and was married in 9 months.

Most of my relatives and friends could not believe that Gary and I didn't travel much. People in Hawaii thought that a person living on the mainland would travel to other states, and Canada or Mexico, we just stayed in California doing the fun things like going to Tahoe for camping and snow skiing and Los Angeles for their Theme Parks (Disneyland, Knotts Berry Farm, Universal Studios, etc.).

The place we enjoyed the most was Hawaii where we spend hours at the beaches, watched breathtaking sunrises/sunsets, gained weight on the appetizing foods, and loved the hospitality of the local people. In the 23 years of marriage we've only returned six times to Hawaii for family vacations with our two daughters. Our plans for retirement would be to reside in Hawaii but our future went off-course where now our hope is just a dream. September 2001, two days after 9-11, Gary was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. When I heard the word "cancer" I couldn't believe it. My heart ached and I could not stop crying for a day and it felt like time just stood still.

We went searching for cures and answers and were given some hope. The specialists and surgeons gave us hope for a moment. They said that by having an operation they might remove the cancer but when they operated it had spread so they were unsuccessful. Gary was given 3 months to live but he's surpassed what his doctors predicted because of his strong will to live. We decided to turn to herbal treatment rather than chemotherapy for this moment because we want quality of life. The herbal treatment seems to be working because it has been a year since his prognosis.

Gary is suffering but staying strong, we hope that we will make it to Hawaii for our 24th anniversary next March. But for now we can only reminisce about the wonderful times we had and hopefully will have again together someday.