HELEN’S LIFE IS IN THE PINK

David Ellis

“Just call me Helen,” says the lady in the fuchsia pink outfit under the voluminous fuchsia pink hat off-setting the camellia pink of the silk-covered walls of her shop.

And through the windows, the softer salmon pink exteriors of the hotel in which her shop is located…

With all this concentration on pink, no wonder the hotel we’re in is better known as The Pink Palace than its official name of The Royal Hawaiian – the grand dame on Waikiki now approaching its 80^th year.

And the lady in pink is as bubbly as pink Champagne when we get her on the subject of her shop that occupies a prime position in the hotel lobby (“The best address in America,” she says,) and which draws more ooo’s and ahhh’s from holidaymakers than anything else on Waikiki.

For if ever there really was an Aladdin’s Cave to be found, Helen’s place would surely be it.

Here is floor to ceiling, wall to wall costume jewellery and accoutrements that Helen herself has commissioned… or which people have brought along in the hope of some holiday play-money from a quick sale in her shop.

Whether it’s a set of fiery out-size ear-rings, a chunky sparkling wrist band, a rainbow coloured necklace, a watch set with sequins, or a flashing tiara, this is where you’ll find it: even while we were visiting, a Cleopatra-style costume-piece necklace originally made for Jackie Kennedy went on sale at Helen’s shop (asking price: just US$495.)

“I call it elegant extravagance,” says Helen, who originally hailed from the Yukon where she grew up in her folk’s log-structure hotel surrounded by snow and ice.

“I used to sit by the fire and listen to a program called ‘Hawaii Calls’ on the radio and hear people talking about Waikiki and the beach and the sun. I’d hear the waves and the Hawaiian music and I’d say ‘It sounds like Paradise… one day I am going to live there.’”

And now she does, running her shop and answering a myriad questions a day from over-awed holidaymakers about her costume pieces that sparkle like the sun flashing off Waikiki’s waves.

“My husband was killed when I was six months pregnant and I had a terrible time,” Helen recalls. “But I determined I would one day find myself surrounded again by beauty.”

It was not an easy ride. “I finally fulfilled my dream and came to Honolulu, initially staying at an absolutely grotty hotel with no view. I straight away went down to the Moana Surfrider on Waikiki to see just where they used to broadcast ‘Hawaii Calls,’ and then I walked up to the Mai Tai Bar at The Royal Hawaiian.

“Well, I just fell in love with this place. If you want something bad enough and you’re willing to work you can make dreams come true – and I wanted bad enough to have my own beautiful shop in this beautiful hotel.

“I re-married, and it was just the happiest day when I won my Green Card  work permit in the lottery draw – I went straight back to the Royal to talk to them about a shop looking over the beach.”

That was nearly twenty years ago and today Helen’s still as effervescent as ever about her Aladdin’s Cave.

And she doesn’t mind holidaymakers just dropping by for a chat and a look, even confiding: “One of my best customers regularly visits from your country Australia. She used to be married to one of your Prime Ministers…”

Tear yourselves apart trying to guess who.

Our lips are sealed.