COURTESY PHOTO
Emma Moreira was something of a rascal
among her relatives.

Queen’s flowers
returned in precious gifts

READER REMEMBRANCE

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David Manu Bird / Special to the Star-Bulletin

Grandma Emma was born in Puna in 1899 to a Hawaiian woman named Martha Ko'olau and a Scotsman named James Pollock. She later married Harry Moreira in the 1920s and sang for the "Hawaii Calls" radio program during the 1930s.

Before then, however, she was sent to Oahu as a boarding student at The Priory, from about 1906 to 1914.

One day, when Grandma was in her 80s, I suddenly realized that she must have been at The Priory when Queen Lili'uokalani was still alive and living next door at Washington Place. So I asked her, "Did you ever see the Queen?"

"Of course," Grandma replied indignantly. "I used to steal her flowers."

Queen Lili'uokalani: Demonstrated her
aloha for Hawaii's children

I was stunned. I always knew that Grandma was something of a rascal. Until late in her long life, she smoked like a fiend and loved her Scotch whiskey. She worked as a faithful cashier for the original Willows restaurant for many years until she was in her 70s, but sometimes she would call in sick so that she could go fishing.

But stealing the Queen's flowers was something else.

The story finally came out. The girls at The Priory would sometimes entertain Lili'uokalani with choral concerts and the like.

When the girls met with the Queen, they had to present her with lei, but they lived in a boarding house. Where could they get the flowers? Over the fence in the garden of the house next door, of course.

In sum, whenever the Queen visited with the girls at The Priory, she received lei made from her own flowers.

Although the Queen had no children of her own, she loved them.

She demonstrated her aloha for young ones by establishing the Lili'uokalani Children's Trust, which is still active today.

I like to think that the Queen, with a smile on her face, would sometimes peek out from behind her window curtains and watch those little girls from The Priory -- Grandma among them -- harvesting blossoms from her plants, knowing all the while that the flowers would come back to her in acts of respect and aloha.

I have no way of verifying the truth of Grandma's story, but perhaps that does not matter.

Grandma's anecdote has become a special part of our ohana's collective lore. The spirit of the story is the important thing.

What wondrous -- and fun -- things we can learn from our kupuna if only we take the time to ask them for their mana'o!