Eager to escape life at the helm of a mule-drawn plow and attracted to the airplanes soaring far above his neatly rowed furrows of red Georgia clay, my southern born and bred father, Thomas, enlisted in the U.S. Navy when he was not yet 18. 

Ten years later, he’d been married for seven years to the beautiful Jennie B. of Watkinsville, and had become a father to my older sister Glenda, born during his tour of duty at Millington, Tennessee. About the time Glenda started to walk, the Navy shipped Dad out to Honolulu to watch over the Pacific at NAS Barbers Point, only 15 years after Pearl Harbor.

In the breezy days of their first Oahu summer, the little family prepared to welcome a second child. They brought me home from Tripler Army Hospital in late July to a tiny, airy Hawaiian cottage nestled among others just like it on Makule Road in Ewa Beach . . . back in the days when Ewa was quiet and sparsely populated by native Hawaiians and the military families who had moved in. I lived there in paradise with Mom, Dad and Glenda until I was 18 months old, much too young for my developing brain to carry any true or lasting memory of those wonderful days.

But the 8mm home movies and stacks of photos that Tom and Jennie regularly sent home, and that were frequently projected back in Georgia, conjured a vivid shadow memory. A memory so alive that I’ve carried a lifelong impression that the miniature cottage is a place I actually know first-hand, back on Makule Road. 

Makule Road is for me my mother’s undying beauty and love, so many years after her death. Makule Road is my father’s ease, humor and strength, even now as he confronts diminishing capacity that comes with age.

Makule Road is cuddles with my sister, who has since worn-in every path for me, with an 18-month head start. Makule Road is the safety of Dad’s arms carrying and comforting me long before I could even crawl. Makule Road is learning to navigate the porch stairs all by myself, dressed in the bright red muumuu that Mom stitched specially for me.

Makule Road is a soothing wash of vibrant tropical colors and perpetual summer. Makule Road is the deep blue Pacific only a block away. Makule Road is complete peace…utter contentment that you carry deep in your heart…forever…despite the challenges, deceit, heartache, and loss that will eventually come your way. Makule Road is everlasting love and endless wonder. Makule Road is…where it all began.

On this travel blog, as I work and play in Hawai’i for the next 30 days, I’ll be going back in mind, body and spirit to the magic of Makule Road. Join me. Aloha.