PUA LOKE — Cruise down Aukoi Street in Lihu‘e and you’ll see a house with white lights and an angel in the yard. That is the house belonging to the “Angel Lady,” Lyn Ratcliffe. “I just love angels and I
PUA LOKE — Cruise down Aukoi Street in Lihu‘e and you’ll see a house with white lights and an angel in the yard. That is the house belonging to the “Angel Lady,” Lyn Ratcliffe.
“I just love angels and I love to share them,” said the 87-year-old. “I think it’s wonderful to sit here looking up at them.”
She’s got angels in the yard and angels on her door, her bookshelves, tables, piano and dresser. She even wears a pendant of one around her neck. For the holidays, most people do house lights, Santas, elves, reindeer and candy canes. Ratcliffe, on the other hand, displays angels.
“My mother gave me my first angel when I was 8 years old and I’ve been collecting them ever since,” said Ratcliffe.
She has 2,000 angels now and pretty much remembers the history behind all of them.
“This one here I got from a friend in the Navy,” she said. “This one is from Germany. They come from all over.”
Ratcliffe displays them at her house for people to view and visit. There are all different kinds, from ornaments hanging from a chain hooked on the ceiling to music boxes to paperweights. She had to take a moment to look at her collection to point out her latest addition.
“Where is it now?” she asked herself. “Here it is. This one you switch it here and her wings flap.”
She then moves on to a side table to turn on the ones that play music.
“This music box here, you crank it back and it goes like this and plays music,” she said. “I’ve got everything to nothing.”
She has a special angel sitting in an old hamburger box on her night stand.
“My daughter made that when she was about 6 years old,” Ratcliffe said.
It took her and her son Michael a couple of days to display them all over the house, but it’s something she enjoys doing just for the holidays.
“I have these angels year-round, but I love breaking them out this time of year,” she said. “We have so many but we had to bring them out. We took over the living room.”
Ratcliffe is World War II veteran import from Illinois. She invites people to her house to look at the angels and talk story. For about 50 years now Ratcliffe and her family have opened their house to the public for viewing.
This is the final week to visit her and the angels. She’s showing it tomorrow, Tuesday and Wednesday from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m., but requests that you call ahead of time.
“I have cider and home-baked cookies,” she said. “They’re my mom’s old recipes. I make a bunch and stick them in the freezer and about a half hour before people come over, I stick them in the oven to bake them so they’re all good by the time people get here.”
Every year the crowds shift.
“Some years I’m just mobbed by people who all want to see the angels,” she said. “And sometimes I just get a nice break.”
She passed out invitations earlier in the month to let everyone know she’d be having the open house. To set up a time to visit, call 246-3632.
“Come on and sit and have some cider,” she said.
• Lanaly Cabalo, lifestyle writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 237) or lcabalo@kauaipubco.com.
