7/16/18
Hoh. No. Kah. Ah.
My grandmother, Mary Jane Texeira, was born in a plantation home on the Kukaiau Ranch outside of Pa'auilo, HI in August of 1920. Her father, Antone, worked the cane fields of the Honokaa Sugar Co. and lived in a small house near the mill with his wife, Cozy, and their ten children. When she was 26, my grandmother moved to Honolulu and opened a little laundry service. A few years later, she met a tall fella from Eastern Washington by the name of Merlin 'Doc' Coffey, my grandfather. They moved to the mainland in 1951 with two children from her previous marriage, as well as one on the way - my father, David. Much of my family is still on the Big Island of Hawaii, living in the small town of Honokaʻa, working as paniolo. That little guy hiding behind his mother's leg is my grandmother's great-great nephew, the next generation of Hawaiian cowboy. And that old guy with the devious look in his eye? That's my grandfather, Doc, at 97.