Certain colors, scents, flowers and even songs evokes memories of days gone by and for me the plumeria blossoms brings back memories of my hula days and my Grandma Serrao’s home on Kam IV Road.
Grandma’s property was home to an abundance of plumeria trees that was picked daily and taken to her lei shop- Harriet’s Lei stand at the airport to be strung into beautiful leis.
The plumeria lei was also the lei of choice when I danced hula during my High School summer breaks. Every Tuesday and Thursday morning dad would take me to Grandma’s house and I would pick and sew the plumeria flowers into beautiful leis and later in the afternoon danced the hula at the Ala Moana Center Stage. Those were wonderful and amazing days. Today Grandma’s house is no longer there but those memories lives on in my heart every time I see a plumeria lei.
Also, the plumeria was one of John’s favorite flowers he would design into beautiful Hawaiian quilt patterns because in his growing up days he was the one that picked all the plumeria blossoms to be delivered to the lei stand. Today, Harriet’s lei stand is still there but now owned and operated by my cousin Leimomi.
