Into her next Century
Grandma Teshima turns 100

by Tiffany Edwards

What am I? It's a question I will always have," Shizuko "Grandma" Teshima says. The proprietor of the famed landmark Japanese restaurant in Honalo continues to ponder the meaning of life at 100.
The Teshima family will celebrate her 100th birthday with an open house at the restaurant on June 24, beginning around 2or 3 p.m.
Teshima says she feels "too old." She'd like to stop time and preserve herself as she is right now.
Born in a Kona coffee field in 1907, she was the oldest of three girls and four boys, and has outlived all of them. Her parents immigrated from Hiroshima; her mother was a "picture bride."
Shizuko married Fumio Teshima 80 years ago; they were together until he died over a decade ago. She is matriarch of a family that includes five children, 12 grandchildren, 25 great-grandchildren and seven great-great grandchildren, some of whom help to operate her business.
She remembers when she first took over the store from her dad in 1929, and her husband worked for the Napoopoo Company.
"Both of us, day and night, with no electricity, we had to make ice cream late at night," she recalls. "My husband grinded. The ice came from Hilo. We had kerosene lamps. Those days it was hard work, but it was good."
In 1960 she converted the store into a 230-seat restaurant.
Teshima is "interested in life" and loves biographies. She also enjoys tabloids such as the National Enquirer and Star; she's fascinated by their take on politics. During our interview, she periodically mentioned her disbelief that Bush could be having an affair with Secretary of Defense Condoleeza Rice.
Of all the wars she's seen, she deems the Iraq War the worst.
"If we want oil or whatever, why don't we buy?" she says. "Why don't they take care of the country, buy enough?"
Like all centenarians, Teshima is a storehouse of nearly-forgotten local lore. She recalls the "Kona echo"- a howling sound "like a ghost-Oooohhh whooo! I used to be so scared."
Over time, it was discovered that the sound came from the ocean hitting a Honaunau cave. There even a newspaper called the Kona Echo.
"In those days we believed in the devil," she says. "When you pass under a mango tree, the donkey doesn't move. So the rider gets off. You'd think the devil was in the mango tree. So you would smoke pakalolo, they call it 'devil.' "Another time, on the road down there, a narrow road, I saw a lady with a bandana on the road that howls. So I went to collection one day, but I couldn't come home because I heard about that devil. Today I would think it was a cat. But I still picture that devil on the road with that big bandana.
"When you go to Volcano, play with fire, throw something, the Hawaiian ladies, I heard them say, 'Pele's going to get angry. Don't throw anything.' Till today, I respect Pele; I think her spirit must be there. The devil, I try not to believe, but when I go out at night by myself, I feel something and I'm scared.
"I'd like to believe something. I wonder if there's something. I wish there is. If they say there's nothing, I lose hope. In religion, Christian, Catholic, whatever I believe.... There is one Almighty God. You can have any religion you want, but there is one God. No discrimination of religion. Everybody teaches you something good, but don't say one mighty God, don't say my God is the only one."
Teshima is convinced there is a spirit, having years ago been visited by her father after he died.
"Sometimes I'm in the kitchen working, I think of someone and then they call me. There's some kind of electricity. Sometimes when you dream, you dream about something. One time I dreamed about a lizard, the next day I saw the lizard. There must be some kind of communication.
"One thing I believe, when you do something good or when you do something bad, in the long run, it comes to you - maybe not to you, to your loved ones. So, if you cheat somebody, you're all right at that time, but you're going to lose on something. Things come round and round. I feel that is true." she says.
Every Christmas she types letters to her children and their children, emphasizing "make sure you take care of yourself and have your protection, including insurance. Don't get angry. Please understand others before you get angry. Don't be greedy. Learn to forgive-even if you're wrong or they're wrong, forgive tomorrow. You'll be happy."
She worries about her family and their lives, and she worries about them caring for the business she has built up over the years.
"I think I had a good life.... I can forgive,. I was just born that way."
Her key to a long life? Teshima believes her family, happy disposition, enjoyment of work and desire to host and care for people have contributed to her longevity.
"You really have to bond with it."

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