My grandma's favorite place in the whole world is Hawaii. Grammy lives for her trips to Hawaii. She is happiest walking along the beach or sitting on a lanai just watching the waves. Her house is decorated in a Hawaiian motif and she tells everyone about the plans she is making for the upcoming year and how last year's trip went. She just emailed me to tell me that she was going to the restaurant owned by Mick Fleetwood.
My grandparents took me and my brother to Hawaii when I was 12 or so. We stayed in a cramped condo for a week with my mom and dad. We took the stereotypical helicopter tour of Maui complete with real life views of the terrain from Jurassic Park. I ate pineapple until I had sores in my mouth and pineapple bagels with passion fruit cream cheese from the farmers market everyday. My grandparents gave me a special treat of an extra week on the island of Oahu. I saw the north sore and bought my cousins puka shell necklaces at a flea market and we chased these things called malasadas and we went to my first Asian market.
When my grandpa (Papa) died when I was 15, we made plans to return to Hawaii and scatter his ashes. We went to the beach outside of their favorite condo and she played their favorite Hawaiian song and drank a glass of pineapple wine and I waded out into the ocean and spread some of his ashes. We did this a few more times on our trip each time leaving a little bit of him behind.
This all has nothing to do with the movie Lilo & Stitch which is basically a weird retelling of the Ugly Duckling story. The movie centers on a family being ripped apart and how an alien without a family reunites the family. The animation is bubbly and the story is sad. You root for everyone to find their place and be reunited together.
The overarching theme of the movie centers on the concept of "ohana" or family and that "no one gets left behind". Everytime I watching this movie, I can't help but think about my grandparents and all of the memories we shared in Hawaii. I remember my grandfather and the fact that he ate a green apple everyday and loved popcorn and that his favorite part of the Polynesian Cultural center was the Tongan drum display. I remember that he was quiet and liked salt on his watermelon and is the reason I know what "Car Talk" is,
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