On Sunday, I called the home of two longtime friends who have been hit hard by serious illnesses, wanting to write about their 57th wedding anniversary on Oct. 18 in hopes of giving them a Thanksgiving and holiday season lift. Instead, I wound up getting a boost myself. Retired HPD Lt. Stan Atkins has been wheelchair-bound after suffering a stroke in 2005 and his wife, Pearl Jean Schneider Atkins, was diagnosed with leukemia in August. She is undergoing tiring chemotherapy and it keeps her from golfing, something she loved to do. She said Stan speaks little but she can communicate. “;Stanley goes to day care four days a week and physical therapy for one hour every Wednesday,”; she said. “;I bought a handivan four years ago and take him to physical therapy. He gets picked up for day care. We go for rides on weekends and have breakfasts at restaurants that are wheelchair friendly.”; Korean War Army vet Stan, 79, and Pearl, 77, went to Stevenson Intermediate and Roosevelt High together. After Korea, he spent 33 years with HPD. Pearl's dad, Eugene “;Red”; Schneider, was a longtime police detective. Stan and Pearl have three kids: Stanley, Dayna Atkins, who arranged the anniversary party, and Jay. They also have eight grandsons and one great-great grandson. Pearl said Stanley, their eldest child, is not a junior, adding that she would never lay the middle name of Rhomulus, on her son. Before the stroke, Stan also golfed and played in tournaments I held. Frank Steinmiller, one of his RHS football teammates and golfing buddies, gets other golfing pals together to visit Stan monthly. The golfing gang is supposed to visit him today and this story will be read to him. When I spoke with Pearl a few days before Thanksgiving, I told her that sometimes life is not fair. But she quickly stopped that talk. “;Life is good,”; she said. “;We have so much to be thankful for. I still have a good man.”; No doubt about it, the girl who I used to tease along with Pat Gomez, her younger sister, grew up to be a remarkable woman ...

Joyce Wong, a children's cancer nurse who has been at Kapiolani Hospital for 25 years, received the 2009 Emma Kauikeolani Wilcox Award Nov. 19 to cap the centennial anniversary of pediatrics at the hospital. The hospital's predecessor, Kauikeolani Children's Hospital, officially opened its doors 100 years ago yesterday. Patsy Wilcox Sheehan, great-granddaughter of Albert and Emma Kauikeolani Napoleon Wilcox, presented the award ...

Chambers & Chambers wine merchants held its annual trade show recently for Hawaii's wine sellers at Honolulu Design Center's Cupola. California-based Suzanne Chambers, who founded C&C with her dad, Jack Chambers, attended and featured wines from California, Oregon, Washington state, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Chile, Argentina, Portugal and Japan. Asked if C&C is Hawaii's biggest wine merchant, Hawaii company VP Nancy Thomas said, “;No, just the best.”; Besides modest Nancy, some of the other Hawaii C&C staffers taking part were Mark Lloyd, Sky Cameron, Ryan Nomura, David Ellis, Kristin Klassert, Jim Powlan, Luke Callaghan and George Rowland ...

Ben Wood, who sold the Star-Bulletin on Honolulu streets in World War II, writes of people, places and things Saturdays. E-mail him at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).