My Nephew Peter's House

My nephews Peter and Mark have been visiting Hawaii since thier early teens. Peter transferred here from UMass in his sophomore year. He graduated from the TINS school at UH and was on the swim team as well.

He and my late husband used to have a lot of fun together watching Schwazenegger and Eastwood action films while Emma and I hid in my bedroom with tamer shows. We all played Star supermarket TV bingo. On vacations, we would drop Peter off at Ala Moana to surf early in the morning and I would pick him up after work to see his hands all wrinkled from being in the ocean so long. He went through the standard harassment from locals who made him wait to catch a wave.

Uncle Kuhia gave these kids presents like an electric guitar to Mark and a surfboard for Peter, no wonder they kept coming back. To be honest with you, Kuhia was the closest they could have gotten to their late maternal grandfather.

Now, Peter lives down the street in his own house with his family of two kids, a wife and a dog. When I heard he was buying a house, or I should say his wife and her father-in-law were buying a house. I went to check it out. I thought it was the house below theirs as it had a for sale sign . I was worried because I didn't like the place. I wanted Peter and his mother Donna to buy a house on Liloha Rise which had three floors which would have been a good investment. The attorney who did buy it, CPR'd it and lives there on one floor, his sister on the next and a rental on the third. Why doesn't my family listen to me?

Peter is a well known athlete and gives triathlon clinics to many people, some of whom encouraged him to become a pilot which he is. I remember when he called me and said he was going to become a pilot; I said it is in your blood. He said why, and I told him Grandpa Dick was a pilot. My father was a pilot and owned a private plane so he could spot fish in the Atlantic Ocean.

I have enjoyed Peter's babies as much as I will my own grandchildren, it is so nice to be with young children. In Hawaii it is good to have family near, as so much of locals lives are focused on family. Coming from Massachusetts, I have always felt that void.

Now his mother, my sister Donna, comes from Billings,Mt. a few times a year to visit her son, his family and me and my daughter Emma who has returned from CCA and a ship sailing around the world, where she was a ship's photographer. Emma is back and is establishing her photography business.