My Leis Upon the Water: The Memories Return

By JoAnne French

My Leis upon the Water is a captivating work of inspiration, humor, family wisdom and nostalgia, all shared in brief autobiographical cameos. A Hawaiian lei’s significance upon return to the beach is metaphor for the author’s returning memories. Blossoms on her memory leis reveal a swath from “angel moment” encounters and singing tours abroad to a singular 1940s bureaucratic blip, and wise words from young and old alike. A great over-coffee read, evoking smiling memories, tears, and some laugh-out-loud fun!

• Language: English
• Publisher: RPJ & Company, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 31, 2012
• ISBN: 9781937770136

JoAnne French

JoAnne French confesses to a lifelong love affair with our language. Since beloved 1950s high school and Whitworth University mentors predicted her fingers would always bear printer ink, JoAnne has found that quite true. She has followed many trails that honed skills in newswriting and editing, publishing, typesetting, printing, business forms design and graphic arts. Everything from logo design to Reagan election and tax campaign material is tucked into archives of her typesetting and graphics studio. Memory leis here shared reveal the swath from a country girlhood just outside Seattle, Washington to her widowhood years near Orlando, Florida. After graduation JoAnne taught briefly, then married. The path of that military marriage wove through San Francisco, Tacoma, San Antonio, Honolulu and the Washington, DC area. Along the way was more teaching, sales training, and then two sons JoAnne considers her singular accomplishment. A later marriage brought the move to Florida. Serendipity treasures followed with choral tours and family visits to Vienna, Prague, Frankfurt, Munich, London, Venice, Rome, Paris and any possible points between. Overflowing memory albums meant it was time to start writing! Adding to her own projects, being a valued “Word Sleuth” for diverse authors brings welcome diversion and new friends. JoAnne divides the rest of her slate for body and mind, she says...dedicated daily biking and yard work, sandwiched with avid reading and WSJ or NYT crosswords. She is not sure where her prodigious baking fits in, affirming often that chocolate is good for the soul! Continued singing with the Orlando First Presbyterian Church choir is still a priority...with more tour experiences perhaps adding to future writing.

Book preview

MY LEIS UPON THE WATER

The Memories Return

by JoAnne French

ISBN-13: 978-1-937770-13-6

SMASHWORDS EDITION

**********

PUBLISHED BY:

RPJ LEGACY BOOKS, (an imprint of RPJ & Company). on Smashwords

This book is also available in print at: http://www.rpjandco1417.com

Cover design concept by John Redman of Addesign – Orlando, Florida

Cover design by Kathleen Schubitz / www.rpjandco.com

Copyright © 2011 JoAnne French

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®, unless otherwise noted. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

Presenting My Leis

With Love...

To all the precious ones

whose smiles, actions and words

kindled the special memories

written here to share with others.

Borrowing an exquisite picture

from Claudia Ghandi:

If I had a single flower

for every time I think about you

I could walk forever in my garden.

JoAnne French

Previewing My Leis...

A lei upon the water will drift with the tide.

In Hawaiian lore, the lei borne back to the beach

signifies that its wearer will also return.

This is a bouquet of stories that in my heart and mind can be strung like fragrant flowers on a lei. Cast upon the water the memories return again and again, to be shared over a dining table or coffee bar, with a lot of remember when… smiles. Created by computer keys rather than deft fingers of a muumuu-clad wahine on Honolulu’s waterfront, my leis contain flowers of inspiration, beauty, humor and love.

First shared are stories in an inviting journey

of what are sometimes called Angel Moments...

God’s amazing provision defying coincidence labels.

Some tales are captured as Pictures of the Heart

because a camera could not do that task.

Both humorous and serious family legends

are strung on my Word (re)Play lei

where pivotal life events turn upon

memorable, must-share words.

My final lei shares treasured pictures

of a Far Country past.

TABLE OF CONTENTS - Finding the Flowers on My Leis

Sharing My Lei of Angel Moments

Fork in the Road

Mr. Shafer’s Goodbye

Saint Paul

Guardian at the Unwelcome Mat

An Accidental Cross

A Family Bible

My Glistening Wanderer

The Wood Pile

Shadow at the Window

Strangers in the Library

Guardian by the Tree

A Wedding Blessing

Circle of Love

Blessings in a Storm

Being Dead is No Excuse

Ghost Flower

The Spanish Moss

10,001 Golf Balls

Traveling Mercies

My Furry White Angel

My London Angel

This Lei Shows Favorite Pictures of the Heart

Haleakala Sunrise

Flower Power

Monumental Beauty

Circle of Trumpets

Kiss of Christmas

The Blue Tide

The Black Sand Beach

Takeoff Practice

Seven Last Words

Beneath Her Wings

Lucky Peacocks

Embraced by the Cathedral

End of the Rainbow

Silent Night, Heilige Nacht

A Stone from Dachau

Last Gift of the Plonlein

Neuschwanstein

A Lei Full of Smiles Word (re)Play

Laughing by the Weeping Willow

No Fan of Wrigley

Picture (im)Perfect

Mountaintop Wisdom

She Kicked Me!

Familiar Faces

A Pizza and 21 Candles

First Things First

The Senator

Music to My Ears

Wedding Music

Rules of the Road

Last of the Bourbon

A Dad’s Promises

Carnegie Music vs. the Zoo

Small Eyes, Wise View

Dining by the Crater

Designer Bath

Hawaiian Cookie Monster

A Cleric’s Lapse

Meeting Mamie

Apt Description

Snow Creations

Child’s View of the News

Making It Happen

Being Lazy Smart

It’s a Small World After All

A New Mountain View

Tree Rain

End of Time

A Lei of Flowers from my Far Country

Closer to the Earth

The Great Butter Coup

Five Rose Petals

The Corner, Corner, Corner Stores

Grandpa and the Dairy Commission

A Penny Saved is, well…

Memorable Links on the Food Chain

No Empty Nest

Radio Adventures

Flowers from Lila and Me

By the Numbers

Apples on Call

Party Line Woes

Nights at the Round Table

And Days at the Nets and Hoop

Petals and Stems

PS Details...Rest of the Story tales, recipes, a Word Sleuth Challenge, and a special thank you.

Angel Moments touch us all.

Many reside in memory’s back niches

because of the vague feeling that it was

just coincidence or imagination at work.

Wise observation says that coincidence

is when God wants to remain anonymous!

These events reaffirm God’s constant

provision, protection and guidance

for us in matters large and small.

Sometimes there is simply a touch

of special blessing brought by something

that just happened at the right time.

In these pages are shared a few

fragrant flowers from my lei of

Angel Moments.

Fork in the Road

It was a great day at the beach for my husband, sons and me. One cannot live in Hawaii without sand and salt water on the body as often as possible. This particular day the trek was made despite the fact that we had invited friends for dinner that evening. Though most of the preparation was already done…just a cookout was planned…getting home promptly was still my plan, to avoid any last-minute rush.

In the stretches of sugarcane and pineapple countryside above Honolulu we approached a Dole facility, appearing to be a visitors’ center we had not remembered. Let’s go in and check that out, my husband commented. He was reminded of needed dinner preparations before our friends arrived. It won’t be too long, he insisted. Let’s just take a minute.

It was literally that, about a minute. We noted that they had intriguing displays, a movie presentation of some kind, and an inviting gift shop. Concluding it was definitely a place to put on the itinerary of our many visitors from the Mainland, we returned to the car.

Only a few miles farther down the highway was a fork in the road where a huge truck had just totaled a tiny car. It was a sobering sight. I think I recognize that car, observed my husband. We passed it a while ago. It was traveling behind us back there before the Dole place.

Did our brief stop at Dole keep us from that danger? If a special Guardian was indeed present for us preventing that accident, a lifelong lesson was also given. Memory of that afternoon has made me alertly aware, and always more patient when some unexpected travel snag occurs. Whether it is a traffic tie-up, an aggravating slow driver ahead, or a required detour, there comes firm reminder that there IS a reason. God’s sure protection does indeed surround us constantly, and only He knows why the trip should perhaps take just a little bit longer…a well-remembered lesson learned at the fork in that Hawaiian road.

"...and he shall direct thy paths."

Proverbs 3:6 KJV

"All chance (is) direction which thou canst not see."

Alexander Pope

Mr. Shafer’s Goodbye

Many years ago a decade of my career was invested in business forms design and management for a major retail company in Washington, DC. Though the Systems Division was related to my duties, project requests and design approval usually came from whatever supervisors or executives had thorny issues that could be solved by a creative form change. So when Mr. Shafer became our manager my day-to-day design and research workload was still dictated elsewhere. He was more a fatherly and pleasant what-are-you-working-on-now? presence in my life, full of helpful guidance. Our schedules left little time to talk much, but it was surely enjoyed and appreciated when we did.

To certain colleagues my comments had sometimes alluded to Mr. Shafer and me hardly ever talking. It brought terrible distress to learn once that company patter had turned those words of mine into inside information about Mr. Shafer and me not speaking to one another…quite a different meaning!

With that sensitivity weighing on me it was a bit disturbing to arrive home one Friday with realization that we had not had the chance to say goodbye. Usually there was a pop-in time to report progress and to wish him success in Saturday golf or whatever was on his agenda. This seemed an especially bad omission that day for my vacation was the next week, and Mr. Shafer would be away the week thereafter.