ANAHOLA — The visitor from Oklahoma fully realized the importance of a rural post office, Friday, patiently holding the door open for postal patrons at the Anahola Post Office. “My husband is in there trying to mail something,” the visitor
ANAHOLA — The visitor from Oklahoma fully realized the importance of a rural post office, Friday, patiently holding the door open for postal patrons at the Anahola Post Office.
“My husband is in there trying to mail something,” the visitor said, all the while enjoying the flow of patrons who went into the post office and emerged with plates of food. “We’re from a rural part of Oklahoma and know how important a post office is to the community.”
The patrons were celebrating the retirement of Diane Higa, postmaster of the Anahola Post Office, following 24 years of service to the U.S. Postal Service, eight as postmaster at the Anahola Post Office.
“They’re retiring young, these days,” said Lillian Yamamoto, a former postmaster at the Anahola Post Office, while offering a dish for the potluck pa‘ina and a lei for the outgoing postmaster.
“She’s still young. And even Audrey Valenciano retired from the Lawa‘i Post Office and she’s young.”
Yamamoto said her father was a postmaster at the Anahola Post Office and she followed in his footsteps, being Higa’s trainer when she joined the U.S. Postal Service on Kaua‘i.
During the pa‘ina, postal patrons flowed endlessly into the small post office which adjoins the Anahola Store, many offering lei and well wishes before enjoying the potluck offering which was enhanced by the live music of postal patrons Bev and Pat Kauanui who were joined by Norman Ka‘awa Solomon strumming out chalang-alang Hawaiian music from behind the counter of the post office, out of the way of the human flow.
“She remembered not only my name, but even my box number,” said Delvynne Gandia, one of the patrons. “She’s special.”
Higa said Brian McCracken will be taking on the duties of postmaster starting Monday until they find another one, McCracken busy tending the post office and doing the transfers when the postal truck arrived on its afternoon run.
Helping Diane Higa with all of the food and refreshments for the busy post office, her husband Guy Higa, the executive chef at the Kaua‘i Marriott Resort and Beach Club at Kalapaki Beach, said he worked all morning to get the food ready for the pa‘ina.
“When I retire, you had better be sure to be there,” he said, laughing.
