Remembering….
t-shirts and the little things. She sent me a photo of two of the thirteen quilt tops she is making for our Ohana, and the memories hit me like a tidal wave. The little things… The Pope sweatshirt with the #16 in the top corner was the one she bought for him so that father and son would have matching sweatshirts on his first visit to the ATL. And I look back through the photo album remembering such good times.
Each time I did laundry, I would hanging his t-shirts and Aloha shirts up on a galvanized rack in the laundry room, organized by color and type. And each time, he would say Thank you for doing my laundry baby. And I would tell him he didn’t have to thank me, but he said that he wanted to. And I graciously accepted his thanks with a hug and a kiss.
And the McLovin’ t-shirt brings back memories of the family putting silly (some would even say stupid) movies on the big screen like Superbad, Napoleon Dynamite and Talladega Nights. He loved wearing it because it was so soft and reminded him of fun times. I think if I look hard enough that somewhere around here there is one of those tacky souvenir McLovin driver’s license.
There’s the shirts that both of them wore the last time he came to visit, and fabric from his shorts when he was a baby on Maui. There are band t-shirts from Premonition and Kona, as well as the Saints NFL championship t-shirts. I think of myDarlin’ Robert Kenui Pope driving down the road with the Saints car flags flying proud and greeting anyone with a fleur de lis on their vehicle with a ‘Who Dat’.
There’s the Leilani’s Aloha Lounge tie dye shirt from the very first year that we held our partiy. The flowers that make up the peace sign were designed by his Mother and the graphic by myDarlin’. So special to me is this design that it is also the screen saver on my iPhone.
There’s the fabrics from the shirt he wore when he gave his testimony at Easter, after surviving a heart attack that had only a 10% chance of survival, and the Beatles t-shirt which represents his roots in music. There’s a piece of the Corona t-shirt and the Haleiwa Strained Poi that were both so thread bare they should have long since found their way to the rag pile, but both were regular favorites.
And as I sit here, eyes barely able to stay open, I can hear myDarlin’ asking me, ‘Coming to bed baby?’ to which I would reply, I’m right behind you Darlin’. Today I’m grateful for t-shirts and the little things, for these are the things that everyday life is made up of.
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