Woman returns to her birthplace after 75 years

John and
Darleen Taylor.
(CHRYSTAL MARINO)

For Darleen Huckaby Taylor, coming to Saipan has always been on her bucket list—one that has taken her 75 years to fulfill as she finally makes her first visit to her birthplace in Chalan Kanoa since May 5, 1948.

Taylor, who is celebrating her 75th birthday this year, has traveled all the way from Arkansas where she lives with her husband, John, and they both arrived on Saipan exactly on her birthday.

Taylor’s husband, John shared that until recently, he didn’t know that a visit to Saipan was on his wife’s bucket list until he asked her if she’d like to visit and she readily agreed. The trip took six months of planning and Taylor said it was definitely an emotional trip for her.

“From the time he had said we’d go, until we got on the plane I was a nervous wreck,” she laughed.

Taylor noted that she had requested their travel agent to get them to land on Saipan on her birthday, which they were able to do, and after 20-plus hours of travel, they touched down on Saipan at 4:30am last Friday.

Taylor, who was born just three months before her family left Saipan, admits that she has no recollection of the small island where she was born, and that she and her family left in the summer of 1948. Taylor shared that her brothers used to tease her that they had found her under a rock on Saipan.

Darleen Taylor shares some of her family’s old photographs of Saipan back in 1948. (CHRYSTAL MARINO)

Taylor shared that growing up in a military family, her family, the Huckabys, moved around several times to other islands including Guam. She shared that her father was a master sergeant in the U.S. Marines, and was stationed on Saipan for nearly over a year, before the military base on Saipan closed in 1948. Just three months prior to their departure, Taylor was born at the Navy Hospital.

During their weeklong visit, the couple was able to see most of the island’s major sites, and drove around her birth town in Chalan Kanoa. Compared to the photographs her family has of the Saipan 75 years ago, she said it is certainly different from what she had been expecting to see.

“We got a lot of beach photographs,” she told Saipan Tribune, sharing the old black-and-white photos of her family playing in Chalan Kanoa beaches and going on hikes in the rustic Saipan. “It’s a lot different,” she noted, adding that she had felt saddened to see the still-unrepaired damage caused by Super Typhoon Yutu in 2018. “It breaks my heart.”

Overall, coming to Saipan was definitely an emotional journey for Taylor, from getting to learn the island’s history, to visiting major sights and landmarks, enjoying the beaches of Chalan Kanoa and the sunsets that she thinks are beautiful.

Coming from a landlocked state, Taylor said they don’t have the constant view of the ocean and beaches, so her walks along the fine sandy beaches near her hotel and her reaction to the tiny crabs along Marine Beach were novel experiences.

She said she and her husband got to drive around the island, sightseeing and making new friends. “Everybody here has been so nice and so friendly…” she said.

The couple will be on island until Wednesday morning, on May 10, when they will take the early flight home.