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A song for my Mom

Updated: May 24, 2021

After our first two albums my father would ask me, when would I compose a song for my mom.


For the life of me I couldn't. No matter how I tried the words would not come. My mother was my hero. She grew up in a time when education was not important for women in the home. She was pulled from school after the 6th grade, and had to take care of the chores at home.


Despite all that she was able to publish poems on the national level, she was our family genealogist, she owned a research business, where she was hired to find peoples ancestors. My favorite times with her was on her bed laying at her feet listening to all the family stories she had found through her research. She read like crazy, our home was full of shelves filled with books she read. She loved reading that was how she gained an education.


So,... my wife started to have this feeling that someone was going to pass. She felt it was her mom. My oldest, Vaihi who was 5 at the time kept telling her it was my mom. But Sylvianne bought a ticket to Tahiti to be with her mom. She wanted to take vaihi but he refused and instead stayed with my mom for two weeks. Sylvianne returned home from Tahiti and on our way to Hau'ula, we picked up Vaihi and headed home. At 3:30 the next morning we received a call. My mom was at Castle. Sylvianne and I rushed there but my mom had passed at home in her sleep. Even as I type this the wave of emotions are beginning to return.


That morning the song came, like rushing waves it poured out. I always felt the song wasn't complete but I recorded it nevertheless. I've since written a bridge,. The are many moments that I wish to sit at her feet to hear her stories, and her gentle voice. Her favorite song by the way was For you. Two days before she passed she called me to thank me for that song, the whole time she was crying I've never forgotten that call.


Yes I miss her still. Off of our self titled album Vaihi the song "Blossom".


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