I have always been considered mysterious. My first memory as a tiny coconut baby was hearing my mother say, “Something is not right about that girl… She has a mysterious quality about her.†And so my life began… I was born on the island of Guam. As a child, we were very poor and had only a short wave radio that occasionally picked up music from the U.S. The first song I ever heard on that radio was “Sheena is a Punk Rocker.†I had no idea who was singing, but, the melody stayed with me for many years.
When I was about 10, my family was shipped to Chicago in a crate. It was a long, hideous journey that I would rather not speak of. Both of my parents were sent to a processing plant and I never heard from them again. I was left alone in a crate near a dumpster in a Chicago alley. I would pass the time humming the melody of “Sheena is a Punk Rocker†and dreaming of better days. I was hopeless and homeless… until a miracle happened. One day I looked up from the crate and staring down at me were two of the most beautiful women I had ever seen. One of them picked me up and said, “This looks like a Coconut Girl.†The other one said, “She looks mysterious.†And thus, my new life began as the Mysterious Coconut Girl. These beautiful women became my mentors. Everything I am today, I owe to Mary Alice and Marie… They picked me up from the gutter, sent me to school, taught me how to dress, how to rock, how to roll, and how to survive...
