Moving to Maui: Trapped in Paradise

By Elise Brady

Faced with an imminent layoff and no prospects for employment in their rural Connecticut town, Elise Brady's family decided to take a leap of faith and leave everything behind to live in paradise—only to find themselves trapped on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Like swimming in the powerful waves that pound the Hawaiian islands, the journey was filled with excitement, anxiety, fear and a fight for physical and emotional survival, leaving the family wondering if they'd made a huge mistake moving to paradise, and if they were any match for the power of the Gods above.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Aug 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9780996054478

Book preview

Epilogue

Prologue

Only a minute must have passed, but time stood still while I contemplated leaving the remote beach without my husband. The sound of my children screaming faded into the background, and the thought of never finding their father’s body sent shivers down my spine. I could not move or breathe. I just stood on the beach, staring out at the 20-foot waves. The thought of a future as a widow trapped on an island overwhelmed me. How would I survive without my husband? How could our children live without their daddy? How could moving to paradise end in such a horrific way—at the hands of Maui’s gods? As time stood still, our journey to this land flashed before my eyes, our move here just three years before this fateful day. At that moment, I realized that this time the gods above were shouting instead of whispering. They wanted us to leave, one way or another!

Our 10-year anniversary trip several years earlier had started this wild adventure. We had planned an exciting celebration because the first nine years of anniversaries, birthdays, and Valentine’s Days had been hastily celebrated, or even forgotten. During the first years of our marriage, my husband treated those special days almost like any other, merely supplementing the day with an amusing greeting card or a last-minute bouquet of daisies from the supermarket. By year five, I realized that a big splash of I love you today is not nearly as important as a steady undertone of I love you and will always love you, no matter what happens.

When we had been married 10 years, we wanted to celebrate in a big way. Many of our friends’ marriages had fallen apart, and we often reflected with gratitude how lucky we were, especially considering we had been such an unlikely match. Our first meeting at a bar in Boston 12 years earlier revealed that I was six and a half years older than the tall, lanky man hovering over my shoulder. His travels to Europe and his recent move to Beacon Hill intrigued me. At the end of the conversation, I asked him, What is your favorite city in Europe? Fifteen years later, he continued to gloat that he had known his response to my question would hook me — great bait, young man! He always has been the romantic in the relationship.

For our 10-year anniversary, instead of going to Venice — our favorite city in Europe — we agreed on Maui. Our honeymoon to Australia had been an amazing adventure, and we knew we could not top that two-week journey, but perhaps we could come close. We had two beautiful kids and healthy parents, so we lined up the babysitting, and off we went to Condé Nast’s top island destination in the United States — Maui. Famous for getting Mauied...the Road to Hana...romance...powerful gods. The perfect anniversary vacation.

Our trip was an incredible adventure. The jagged lava fields, the gorgeous waterfalls, and the brilliant sunsets burned vivid memories into our brains and lulled us into a state of What if...? As we headed to the airport on the last day of our trip, my husband and I looked at each other and in unison said, Wouldn’t it be cool to live here? During the previous 10 years we had often discussed dreamy scenarios: winning the lottery..., living on a tropical island..., retiring on a lake. As an Aquarius, Colin lived in the future, and I (the Gemini) loved change; so our what ifs were mutually satisfying and a great escape from the day-to-day monotony that becomes especially depressing during the cold, blustery Connecticut winters.

The flight home from Maui was filled with giddy talk about going to the beach every Sunday and raising a family on an island many call paradise. Few negatives bubbled up as we discussed the possibility of Moving to Maui. Twelve hours later we landed and returned to the grim reality of March in northeast North America. Traffic, snow, and bare branches dampened our moods. That night, as the wind whistled through the cracks in our windows, we bundled up under the covers and drifted off to sleep, the possibilities of Maui filling our dreams.

Chapter 1

Six Degrees

A year had passed since our memorable anniversary trip to Maui, and we found ourselves in the midst of an incredibly cold and stressful winter in Connecticut. Our move to a small, peaceful community in the northwest corner of the state was suddenly disrupted by unsettling news. Colin’s job would be eliminated in May. In three months, we would be living on my part-time salary, and the bill for two private school tuitions would be due.

Colin’s job search in our area did not go well. The real estate market had recently tanked too. The nightly routine of baths, reading time with the kids, and a glass of red wine ended in increasingly stressful conversations. We realized that we may be in financial trouble by the end of the year.

Colin’s impending layoff amplified the stress I felt at my job. As the grim reality of our situation set in, I found myself crying in the director’s office. I had come to terms with the inevitable. We would have to pull our children out of the Montessori school that we had moved to the area to attend.

As the part-time director of communications at the school, my heart ached when I envisioned dropping my kids at public school and then heading to work at a highly regarded private Montessori school they could no longer attend. A sick feeling ate away at me daily. At night I spent hours thinking about ways to keep Jasmine and Jared in a Montessori school, even if it were somewhere else in the world.

• • •

February came. The temperature outside was 6 degrees Fahrenheit, and the house was surrounded by 6 feet of snow. Colin and I sat by the crackling fireplace. Sullenly, my husband mentioned two job opportunities — one in Albany, one in New Jersey.

I cringed. If we have to move again, let’s go someplace warm and exotic, I said. I thought Colin would laugh at the idea.

Surprisingly, Colin looked into my eyes without a trace of jest. Why not? he said. Our kids are young enough. If we have to move, let’s make it an exciting experience instead of a depressing one.

My only condition — there had to be a Montessori school wherever we landed.

Deal! Colin exclaimed.

The next thing I knew, we were throwing around the names of places that were:

1) in the United States

2) warm and sunny; and

3) had a Montessori school.

Maui had a big Montessori school, so it was first on our list. St. Thomas was a close second, but after reading about the crime rates there, we quickly eliminated it. After researching Key West and a few other tropical places, we ended up focusing on Maui. In our minds, it truly was paradise.

With Hawaii as our target location, we began researching job opportunities. Colin spent the next few days researching businesses for sale. He pulled out his dusty folder of franchise research. The idea of buying a business in Maui induced dreams of independence...but it also scared us. We did not know the island well. As a backup, Colin also searched the local job boards, which were touted as the only sites that posted available positions in Maui. The cold, snowy weather and ice-chipping sessions over the next week inspired us to maintain the hunt, and each night we drifted off to sleep while talking about the possibility of living in paradise.

Chapter 2

Kings 8:24

The weekend after we chose Maui, we cuddled up by the fireplace and searched for jobs and businesses for sale while our kids played nearby, blissfully unaware that life could change dramatically in the near future. We had decided not to mention the possibility of moving to them because we knew that imagining the future was not a skill they had developed. They were only 4 and 9 years old. Routine and friends were the stabilizers in their lives, and without firm plans about a move, we didn’t see the need to pull the rug out from under them.

Knowing that our move would be dependent on admission to a Montessori school, I sent a request for admissions information to the large Montessori school in Maui’s upcountry. Along with the inquiry about admission, I added a note that I also would be looking for a job and I attached my resume to the email. After hitting the send button, Que Sera, Sera played in my mind. I leaned heavily on my belief that the future is somewhat planned by a higher power and no matter the path, it was meant to be taken.

I have to thank the mother of a dear college friend for instilling this belief in me during a difficult time in my life. At the time, my future was very uncertain. It seemed insane that the path in front of me could be a positive one, but just a few years later, I realized how that turn in the road was exactly the right one for my career. Twenty years later, with our future so uncertain, I knew deep in my soul that if our path involved a move to Maui, I would follow that yellow brick road with faith and excitement.

Each night during the following week, after the kids were tucked in, Colin spent hours sending his resume to companies that were hiring in Maui. We were certain that his financial skills would be valued. Friday morning came, and neither of us had heard anything from anyone. It had been only a week, and we knew we were being impatient, but our dream of moving to paradise consumed us. Every spare moment was spent surfing the internet looking for jobs, housing prices, flight schedules, and blogs about living in Hawaii.

A temperature swing from the 40s to the 20s that week resulted in 3 inches of ice on our steep driveway. Commuting each day became a dangerous adventure. Every time I would slide down the driveway and turn the wheel just in time, thinking, This is the last winter I have to deal with this insanity. After 44 years of living in New England, one would think a tolerance for the nasty weather would have built up, but it seemed like the opposite was happening. Each year I hated it even more.

Friday afternoon finally arrived. At 3:30 p.m., I snuggled into my comfy couch and pulled out my laptop to check my email. As my email loaded, I had no expectations. Suddenly, the phone rang. I jumped to pick it up, and my heart stopped when the person on the other end said she was calling from the Montessori school in Maui. My emotions bounced from excitement to disappointment when the admissions director informed me that there was no wait list for admissions. However, there were no job opportunities at the school. As she wished us good luck, she casually offered advice that would change our lives. Perhaps you should send your resume to the smaller Montessori school down in Kihei. I heard they might be hiring. My mind raced. Another Montessori school in Maui? Where? I thanked her profusely and said we would be in touch. As soon as I hung up, I began searching the web to find the school. It was not easy to locate the website. Once I landed on the site, I realized they needed help with web design and search engine optimization. If only those had been the largest issues facing this school!

I located an email address and sent off an enthusiastic message about our possible relocation and my interest in obtaining employment at the school. I was confident that my experience would interest the hiring committee, considering they were looking for an administrator. My excitement about the opportunity caused me to jump up and pace around the room.

A few minutes after sending the message, a ding indicated I had received a new email. Returning to the couch, I saw the email was from an old friend from elementary school. The subject line was Kings 8:24. Typically, I would have disregarded an email with a religious subject as I had drifted far from my Catholic upbringing and married an agnostic who constantly reminded me that religion had done more harm than good over the past 2,000 years. But the sender’s name inspired me to pay attention. She was a friend who had only recently come back into my life at our 20-year high school reunion. A kind, intelligent woman who had stood by my side a couple of years earlier when my brother had died. She had tragically lost a sibling years before, and so we reconnected from our long-ago-planted roots of friendship and mutual experience with loss and grief.

When I opened the email, my heart skipped a beat. A white animated dove appeared on the screen. Its wings floated up and down, and a quote below the dove lifted my soul to a level of excitement that was indescribable. A blessing is coming to you in the form of a new job, a house, marriage, or financial breakthrough...

I screamed and grabbed my phone to call Colin. He did not believe in spiritual signs or messages from above. I knew he would not see the significance of the email, but I needed to tell him anyway. I reminded him of the many spiritual signs I had received since the death of my brother. This was another sign from above — we were moving! As suspected, Colin scoffed at the idea that an email with a religious undertone would predict our future. However, in the back of his mind, I think he was hoping like hell that it was actually a sign.

Chapter 3

Leap of Faith

The following days were filled with hours of daydreaming about sandy beaches and learning how to surf. My fingers danced across the keyboard of my laptop as I surfed websites for stunning photos of colorful sunsets and waves that curled and sparkled as they drew you into their enticing pipes. As we jacked up the heat on a chilly Sunday afternoon, we joked that we would never need heat in Maui! Little did we know that the week ahead would be the beginning of our journey — one filled with highs and lows, tears and fears. An adventure that many people only dare to dream about.

The fateful email was waiting for me when I arrived home from work on a Tuesday evening. I was shaking as I opened the notification. The subject line: Board of Trustees Montessori School. I held my breath and read, Your resume has been reviewed, and we would like to know if you are available for a phone interview before the end of the week. My fingers fumbled as I clicked the buttons on my cell phone, attempting to call Colin. Finally, he picked up the phone. I calmly stated, We may be moving to Maui.

His realistic (I say pessimistic) response was calm and unemotional — We should not get ahead of ourselves. However, the Kings 8:24 email floated around in my head. I knew in my heart this was going to be the yellow brick road that would take us to paradise.

The first phone interview was scheduled for later that night with Janet, the acting president of the board and chair of the hiring committee. I took a deep breath and held onto my chair as I dialed the number. A sweet, gentle voice answered. Quickly she jumped right to business and said, Due to your combination of financial and Montessori experience, we would like to know if you are interested in applying for a head of school position. My mind raced, and I tried to sound intelligent while I quickly considered the opportunity. I had done my research and knew the school served students from pre-K to 8th grade. My seven years of running a Montessori school for children ages three to six had prepared me to be the leader of a school, but I worried that my lack of experience with elementary and middle school students would knock me off the short list. I told Janet that I was very interested in exploring the opportunity, and we scheduled a Skype interview with the remaining board members on the hiring committee. I put the date and time into my calendar and knew it was the next step to getting to the great and wonderful Emerald City. However, like Dorothy, I too faced obstacles and challenges along the way and what was behind the curtain was not what was expected.

I was overwhelmed with excitement after the call with Janet. I could hardly wait for Colin to come home so we could strategize over the possibility that we could move to Maui and one of us would have a job! Our research indicated that it was very difficult to get a job in Maui unless you were already living on the island. This fact had been verified the week before when a hiring manager laughed when Colin told him that we were researching a move to Maui. Call me when you move to Maui, the manager said. Multiple blogs and sites about moving to Hawaii reiterated that getting hired happened only after you were living there. According to most locals and residents of Maui, dreamers on the mainland constantly apply for jobs but they never truly mean to uproot their family and move to the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Locals knew it was easy to dream but difficult to move to the most remote location on earth (in terms of proximity to other land masses). Historically, the unemployment rate had been one of the lowest in the country. Locals like to say, If you got off the plane and could breathe, you could get a job in the service industry. However, since the economic downturn, tourism had been hit hard and many people had lost their jobs and even their businesses. We were swimming upstream, and getting a job while still living in Connecticut was, according to many, Impossible!

That evening after a couple of glasses of red wine, I allowed myself to imagine telling family and friends that we were Moving to Maui. The words melted in my mouth, and I felt warm and fuzzy, excited, daring, crazy, and anxious. The feelings were from the thought of the future, and not the wine this time!

The Skype interview the next week went very well. My confidence was building throughout the call until the last statement from Janet, the chair of the committee. With kindness, she uttered, We are at the end of a year-long hiring process and your resume was unexpected. Therefore, we will have to think about it before we move forward. My heart sank. Throughout the call I had become more and more confident that my financial background was what they needed because they had shared their desire to hire someone financially savvy. However, I knew from that last comment that they probably had a candidate who had made it all the way through the vetting process and I had jumped into the race too late. It sounded like delays may not be something they were willing to deal with at this point. Adding to my concern was their comment that I was living so far away and they were worried that we may not actually move to Maui. I thanked them for their time and disconnected from Skype with a feeling that our ride to the top of the roller-coaster of emotions was about to take a steep downward fall. Holding on for dear life was not something I was ready to do so soon on our amazing journey.

After the call, time passed as slowly as honey dripping from a jar. Each day I would move through the daily routine as if I were in slow motion, praying and hoping to hear from the board of trustees regarding their decision to consider me as a candidate or not. While waiting for the call, I decided to take things into my own hands and I convinced Colin to take a vacation to Maui while the kids were on spring break in March. If I could find flights that were reasonable and a condo that would not cost an arm and a leg, he agreed that we could consider this trip a great vacation with the possibility of an interview at the Montessori school.

Fast and furiously, I researched the travel options. As fate would have it, the flight costs were the same as going to the Caribbean, and condos were plentiful and better priced than expected due to the weak economy. The trip was booked. I emailed Janet to let her know that we had decided to fly to Maui for a vacation. I also asked if they would interview me in person while I was on the island. How could they say no when I was paying for the trip? Luckily my instincts were correct. They agreed to consider my candidacy seriously, and they scheduled an all-day interview for me while I was in Maui.

Dizzy with excitement, I started packing and told the kids, We are going to Hawaii in a week! With snow covering the yard and the mittens and hats still in the basket by the back door, joy filled the room as we pulled out the summer boxes from the back of the closet to find our swimsuits and flip-flops.

During the next week, I was connected with the current head of school. She shared that she had resigned the year before so she could start an independent high school on the island. She was helping coordinate some of the interview meetings with the teachers and staff so she had emailed me the schedule. With her email address at the touch of a button, I reached out to ask her whether I needed to bring a business suit for the interview. She giggled in the email and stated very clearly, The only suit you need on this island is a bathing suit! Sweet! With the city of Kihei typed into my iPhone weather app, I looked at the forecast and smiled: 80-82 degrees and sunny for the entire week.

With the anticipation building, I attempted to stay calm by surfing the internet. I spent time researching the availability of a long-term rental and job opportunities for Colin so