Chelby
Revised Eulogy: My Grandma, Kikue or “Kay†Ige was born on August 20, 1927 in Kahuku, Hawaii. She was born to immigrant parents who were originally from Tamagusuku, Okinawa. As her two oldest siblings passed at a young age, my Grandma became the eldest sibling to her 13 younger brothers and sisters. Grandma spent her childhood helping to take care of her family’s farm in Kahuku as well as helping to take care of her siblings. After graduating from Kahuku high school, Grandma worked various jobs to help support her family before finally working as a personnel clerk at Hickam Air Force Base for 34 years. She then met my Grandpa, Tadamori, through a friend and they married on August 30, 1947. They eventually moved to Waimalu and had 4 children together.More than anything, my Grandma loved her family. From a young age, she had a strong sense of responsibility, leading her to care for her parents and siblings even after starting a family of her own. She looked forward to the annual Ishimine new year’s parties and enjoyed going to Las Vegas and California to catch up with her siblings. Kari recalls that Grandma had a lot of fun whenever she went to Las Vegas. She enjoyed playing her favorite poker machines, unless she lost money. She was always excited to win money so that she could give it away to her family or use it to buy extra omiyage. Grandma always thought about her family before herself. Chelsie remembers Grandma’s phone mounted in the kitchen and how it had the longest telephone cord EVER! She remembers the cord being able to stretch across the living room whenever Grandma had to look around for her address book or post-it notes. She spent most of her time on the phone talking to her sisters. Looking back on it now, Grandma was always listening and offering advice to everyone in the family. I remember that at least once a month, Grandma calling her relatives in Okinawa and you would know because she would be speaking mostly Japanese and then suddenly pidgin English for all the words she didn’t know. It sounded funny but we never complained because she was the most bilingual out of all of us. Grandma enjoyed telling stories about all her trips to Japan and Okinawa and I guess it was because those were the places that made her feel the most connected to her roots. After Grandma retired, she focused all of her time on babysitting her grandchildren. Brandon remembers that Darren, him, and Eric would hide Easter eggs in Grandma’s wig…even if it wasn’t Easter. She would scold them whenever they tried it on and tell them it was very expensive. Until this day, we don’t know if she ever wore that wig or if she was actually bald. Growing up, Eric remembers Grandma taking him, Darren, and Brandon to Playwell to buy toys. But all the toys needed batteries so Grandpa would give them batteries and then collect it back at the end of the night. [insert story about the Break dancing room]. Every Saturday, Aunty Kathy and Kari would visit and take her shopping at Pearlridge or Daiei. She would always come back home with some desert for Grandpa and then immediately start preparing to cook for our weekly Saturday night dinners at her house. Grandma was known to make some of the most iconic dishes such as her potato crab salad and nishime. And every new year’s she would make her famous maki sushi and mochi. It took 2 days and help from some of the family to cook and prepare everything! But she would always share with the neighbors on her street and of course her family. Grandma would continue cooking food, catching up with her sisters on the phone, and calling each grandchild on their birthday until she was diagnosed with dementia in 2011. As her memory slowly deteriorated, we discovered a new side to her. During a visit from Aunty Sue and Uncle Bob in 2014, Uncle Bob started singing Japanese songs to Grandma. Much to our surprise she began to sing and dance along. It was one of the first times we