My dad would have been 105 years old today
He died in 2009 at age 89 in a nursing home
He was 29 when he married my mom
After serving 4 years with the 82nd Airborne in WWII
35 when I was born, he’d moved back to Honolulu
Found work as an insurance and real estate salesman
When I made 35 I had no children of my own
But taught many at the University Laboratory School
He turned 53 the year I graduated from that same Lab School
And had gained 30 pounds after quitting cigarettes on his 50th birthday
At 53 I was smoking a pack and a half of cigarettes a day
A counselor for students with disabilities at UH Mānoa for 14 years by then
He was 56 when I left for grad school in Madison, Wisconsin
Where he’d met my mom at Der Rathskeller cafeteria on campus in 1946
At 56 I was still a counselor with the UHM KOKUA Program
And I lost my father that year
Time and age, calendars and candles
The interweaving lei of memories and days
Lanning Lee 