The old saying goes, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” This particularly applies to the reigning Mrs. Hawaii Beauty Pageant winner, a Greeley native.
Adriane Flower, 43, is not the average beauty queen. The pediatric and neonatal intensive care unit nurse grew up on the Front Range where she trained horses, raised chickens and attended the Greeley Stampede. Beauty pageants were not exactly in her wheelhouse.
But an unhealthy marriage, a 3,200-mile move, two decades of volunteer work and a stroke led her the Mrs. Hawaii title — one that means more to her than just the recognition. It was a chance to find herself again and become the person her younger self needed.
“Would I have ever thought over 20 years later, I’d be in a pageant and in this position? Absolutely not,” said Flower, a Greeley West and University of Northern Colorado alumna. “Now I have a chance to be here and be a role model for so many; not just for the youth in Hawaii but for the youth back home in Colorado.”
‘It feels like 100 years’
Most of Flower’s memories of Northern Colorado bring her happiness.
Her parents, Dr. Thomas and Cass Flower, said she took dance classes, rode horses, played soccer and loved her variety of pets. She even participated in snow sledding on the UNC campus.
After graduation, Flower worked for a hospital in Sterling. The plan was to train horses as her “main gig” and work as a nurse on the side, but an unsafe marriage ended her time in Greeley.
Flower, who admitted she experienced suicidal thoughts, left the 48 contiguous states after the relationship ended at age 23.
“‘I don’t want to open up the paper one day and see your obituary. You need to run and you need to run as far as you can,’” Flower recalled her therapist telling her. “I packed up, gave myself a month, and I came to Hawaii. I literally just left.”
Flower moved to Hawaii almost 21 years ago without a job, housing, transportation or loved ones waiting for her. She found a job shortly after arriving and built a new life.
She married her second husband (Rediet), has a son (Joseph) and added a cat (Echo) to the family. Most of her work focused on helping others receive quality health care, while keeping children and families safe through preventative training and accessible resources.
Flower spent time working in Denver after 9/11 and worked two jobs — one in Hawaii and one at the Los Angeles Children’s Hospital — from 2007 to 2009. Aside from those brief stints, however, Hawaii has been her home.
Typically, Flower’s family visits once a year and she travels to Colorado during the summer, but COVID-19 halted their travel plans and changed her own life as a nurse. Flower has relied on her husband and fellow health care workers through all the highs and all the lows she’s faced.
“I feel like I’ve lived 100 years over the last 20,” Flower said.
From a stroke to a sash
An acquaintance approached Flower in 2016 about participating in the Mrs. Hawaii pageant — it focuses mostly on a woman’s family, career and any charity work she has done. What an honor it would be to be a representative for causes she cares about.
A bout of pneumonia and then a stroke ended that plan.
“I really, totally thought my life was done after that,” Flower said of the stroke.
She’d spent her life making sure others were cared for and felt compassion, and it seemed at the time that part of her life was over.
Flower went through the rehabilitation process, during which she thought she would have to quit her job and experienced severe mental health struggles. That period of time was very dark, she said.
But her husband and loved ones, those on and off the mainland, supported her through it all. Her husband took her to the hospital when the stroke occurred and took her to doctor’s appointments. Others, including her parents, provided encouragement while she experienced the various cognitive and physical effects from the stroke.
Last spring, Flower decided she was healthy enough to participate in the 2020 pageant and felt like it would give her a chance to move past the traumatic events in her life. It was a way to build her confidence and feel like herself again.
“We were there (in Hawaii) last spring when she walked in with the sash and tiara on her head,” Thomas Flower said with a laugh. “Her husband and I both rolled our eyes … The important thing is that you want to do what brings joy to a person’s life. That brought her joy.”
‘I needed the pageant’
Mrs. Hawaii is different from other pageants. Contestants receive 50% of their points based on their articulation and confidence in an interview. They discuss their families, careers and any volunteer work.
The pageant also includes a swimsuit and evening gown portion.
The Mrs. Hawaii America website — different from the Mrs. Hawaii United States program — says the judges focus their points on how a contestant carries herself and the overall neatness of her appearance. Points are not based on achieving a certain body type, it says, and allows women to wear one-piece swimsuits and gowns of their choosing.
Flower earned the title of Mrs. Hawaii in September after competing against seven other delegates. The Mrs. America Pageant, located in Las Vegas, is set to take place in January 2021.
The newly-crowned Mrs. Hawaii looks forward to using her new platform to advocate for nonprofits, while giving others hope that they can move past whatever situation they are in.
“What I want the youth in Greeley to know is — you can make it happen. I had a friend in high school commit suicide because she thought she couldn’t do any more in her life. I almost gave up, too, with the situation I was in. I was suicidal, and I thought, ‘This is it,’ because my situation was so bad.”
Her mother, Cass Flower, said it was important for her daughter to participate in the pageant process. was important. She needed a new challenge and something that would make her happy. It provided both.
“I needed the pageant to kind of get me back up to where I was,” Flower said.
The Link LonkOctober 31, 2020 at 08:31PM
https://www.greeleytribune.com/adriane-flower-mrs-hawaii-earns-crown-after-leaving-colorado-health-issues
Greeley West, UNC alumna wins Mrs. Hawaii title after cross-Pacific move, stroke - Greeley Tribune
https://news.google.com/search?q=Flower&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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