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Wood Craft Ben Wood |
Woman makes her
dreams come trueChristine Lillo, a Honolulu cosmetic makeup artist, has made two of her dreams come true and is working on a third. Christine grew up in the French Alps and at age 6 would dash to the police station whenever helicopters would make rescues. She had a "thing" for 'copters even at that young age. When she was 22 she was on a skiing trip in Gstaad, Switzerland, and the group had to take a 'copter to ski on a glacier. Christine sat next to the pilot and "that was it," she said. She was living in London at the time and when she returned home she started training to become a helicopter pilot. She earned her license in only four months. She then entered Oxford Air Training School for a year and fell in love with a man who was training to be an airline pilot. That ended her helicopter career. Later, while living in Canada, she saw an IMAX film made in Hawaii about dolphin intelligence, and was determined to become a dolphin-training volunteer in Hawaii. She came here and was told there was no dolphin volunteer program at the Kewalo Research Marine Lab. She kept bugging lab officials for a year. Finally, a friend introduced her to program director, Lou Herman, who saw she was so passionate about the dolphins, he asked if she would you like to meet them. Soon she was working as the first program volunteer in the mid-90s. Lillo's latest dream is to develop a cosmetics line. Go girl! ...
Nona, Ozzie honored
Cheers to Nona Beamer, who was honored with the Duke's Waikiki Hookahiko Award for maintaining Hawaiian traditions. Nona was not told of the award so it was a surprise for her to see about 60 family members and friends on hand when she walked into Duke's. Gov. Linda Lingle and Mayor Jeremy Harris proclaimed Dec. 11 as "Aunty Nona Beamer Day." Others who have won the award are Genoa Keawe, Pualani Mossman, Violet Lilikoi, George Kanahele and Wright Bowman ... Oz Stender was named Kamaaina of the Year by the Historic Hawaii Foundation at a reception at the Royal Hawaiian earlier this month ...Jean Mahie came to town for a trunk show featuring her 22-karat gold jewelry at Neiman Marcus. Getting a chance to meet the straight-talking artist with long silver hair was a delight. The woman's collection is a treasure and so is her personality. She started out as a painter at the tender age of 10 and had her first exhibition at 13. She went into sculpture at 22 before concentrating on gold. Her pieces are on display at Neiman's ...
Eye-opener
I didn't have a column last Saturday as I was recovering from cataract surgery, smoothly performed by Dr. Percy Chee at Queen's Hospital. Dr. Francis Lim was the anesthesiologist. The procedure is amazing. It took only about 15 minutes. I thought I was still being prepped for the operation, then I heard someone say, "You're done!" I didn't feel a thing. Percy has high praise for the Queen's staff. He said they have the operating room ready for the next operation in five to 10 minutes. "They are really top notch," he said. Percy and Francis are pretty good, too ...
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Ben Wood, who sold the Star-Bulletin in the streets
of downtown Honolulu during World War II, writes of
people, places and things every Saturday.
E-mail him at bwood@starbulletin.com