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The Goddess Speaks Eleanor Nakama-Mitsunaga |
Mom’s ‘luck’
carries her
through lifeToday, my mom turns 72. It's a special birthday for her because it's also the year of the ram -- the Chinese zodiac sign that my mom was born under.
On the first day of this year, she exclaimed, "This is my lucky year!" She could somehow feel the good fortune coming her way, she explained. And she was adamant that this was the year she was going to hit it big. So she did what any red-blooded, frog-wearing, jade-rubbing gambler does: head for Las Vegas. In fact, we all bought into my mom's lucky-streak notion and tagged along in hopes of milking the cash cow.
Two days into our trip, someone stole my mom's bag, with all her lucky money, right off her shoulders. Casino security personnel and cameras immediately picked out the culprit, and her bag was returned safe and sound with every bill intact. My mother's response to the incident -- after a near anxiety-induced heart attack -- was, "See, this is my lucky year, that's why."
You could say that luck of some sort or other has followed my mother for most of her life. She was born in Okinawa in the Depression era, and her life has been a series of narrow escapes and tests of endurance.
She almost died of kidney failure as a child. She and her family escaped the invasion of Okinawa literally on the last evacuating ship to southern Japan. All members of her immediate family survived the war, only to return to a life of unimaginable poverty.
She finally found true love at age 30 (old in those days), but it meant leaving her country and ailing mother behind. She then lost the love of her life to cancer after only 14 years of marriage, leaving her to raise two young children on a wing and a prayer. She struggled to keep the family and what small assets we had intact through bouts of depression and early menopause, even starting a coffee business in Waikiki long before Starbucks was ever known outside of Seattle.
Mom has lived most of her adult life disease- and injury-free, except for a few minor broken bones, the last one suffered just a couple of months ago when she fractured two ribs after slipping in the bathtub. But, in classic mom reasoning, her first reaction was, "See, I was lucky I didn't break my hip." Can't argue with that, Mom.
The year is coming to a close, and although it hasn't been the year of the jackpot for my mom, it has been another year of so-called "lucky" breaks for her. If you want to call it luck, Mom, so be it. I would chock it up to an optimistic attitude and sheer perseverance.
Happy birthday, Mom.
Eleanor Nakama-Mitsunaga is a freelance writer whose column, "Key Ingredient," runs in the Star-Bulletin food section each Wednesday.
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