A Reunion Wish, from Hawaii to Japan

Laughter rippled around a large table in a bright Tokyo area restaurant. Sherry Imamura-Ryan basked in the glow of relationships renewed and stories remembered. As waiters served up Italian dishes, she looked at the smiling faces.

She had come home.

“It was just an internal feeling,” the Wahiawa resident says of her spring reunion with the Japanese cousins she had grown up with. At 74, she hadn’t visited her homeland in over six decades—not since her father, a U.S. Army interpreter who met her mother in Japan, moved the family to Hawaii for a new posting.

“Something about my body and my heart changed when I got there,” Imamura-Ryan says.

AARP charitable affiliate Wish of a Lifetime made the week-long trip happen after her friend Rose Kirland learned the organization fulfills dreams for older adults as a way to inspire others.

Concerned that mobility issues could shorten the travel window for her friend, Kirland nominated her. “I knew she would never ask for anything. That’s just her nature,” says Kirland, who’s witnessed Imamura-Ryan’s tireless volunteerism and mentoring for Hawaii’s Toastmasters clubs, where she is an area director.

A wife and mother of two adult children, Imamura-Ryan had a 37-year career with the federal government in anti-discrimination and affirmative action roles with the U.S. Army, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Department of Labor. She retired in 2011, turning to caregiving for family members.

Until Wish of a Lifetime came along, she hadn’t considered a homeland journey. But renewing family ties was exciting, she says, and experiencing a traditional onsen hot springs bath was rejuvenating.

The trip also allowed her to look anew at her busy life, focusing on personal well-being and family connections. That might even mean another sojourn.

“The cherry blossoms are still calling to me,” she says.

—Rita Beamish