PO‘IPU — On Sept. 9, 1992, Terry Gordines went to visit the doctor and was told everything was okay. “Then the hurricane came, and so did she,” said Gordines of Tropical Flowers Express on a recent Wednesday from her table
PO‘IPU — On Sept. 9, 1992, Terry Gordines went to visit the doctor and was told everything was okay.
“Then the hurricane came, and so did she,” said Gordines of Tropical Flowers Express on a recent Wednesday from her table at the Kaua‘i Culinary Market at The Shops at Kukui‘ula. “Sonia was two weeks early.”
Gordines said when the winds of Hurricane ‘Iniki swept over the island, she was in labor with her daughter.
Sonia was born the morning following the hurricane, which blew over the island on Sept. 11, 1992.
“I kept saying, ‘No labor, no labor,’ but when it’s time …” Gordines said. “The wind was blowing up in Kawaihau where we live.”
During the hurricane, the Gordines’ home lost its roof and Sonia was already knocking on the door.
“We couldn’t get to the hospital because the roof blocked the road,” she said.
“It was already late, the road was blocked, and yet there were some county people with a bulldozer trying to clear a way to the water tank.”
She said her husband Johnny asked if the county guys could help clear the road so they could get to the hospital.
“The winds had subsided by then, and when we finally were able to leave, it was about 1 a.m.,” the tropical flower vendor said. “But when we got to Kapa‘a town, the police were there by the bridge with a roadblock. From there, we had a police escort to the hospital where Sonia was born at 8 a.m., Sept. 12.”
Sonia got her name from her brother Noah who was 10 years her elder.
The roof was destroyed on the Kawaihau home, so Sonia went home with Terry’s parents who had come from Whittier, Calif., to help with the baby.
“She was with them until Johnny could find us a place to live,” Gordines said. “He finally found a place at Pono Kai until we could get our home repaired.”
Twenty years later, Sonia gave birth to a son, Jaeden Silva, who recently celebrated his six-month birthday.
Sonia attended school at the College of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas but has returned home, and is now working at the St. Regis Princeville Resort with her boyfriend, Randall Silva.
“She still wants to go back and finish school, but she’s doing well at her job right now,” Gordines said.
“I guess they really wanted her because when she interviewed and told them she was at school, they said they would hold the job for her until she got home.”
