Marie Kwiatkowski volunteers one morning a week at the Castle Hospital gift shop. When she was asked to help out at the hospital's Wellness Fair fashion show last fall, she agreed though she had never done anything like that before. It was there, modeling a blouse and nice white slacks, that she was discovered by a talent agent.

"They asked what agency I was with and I said, 'Agency?' I didn't know what they were talking about."

Ryan Brown, owner of Honolulu modeling agency ADR, saw great potential in the 67-year-old grandmother.

"He told me, 'My wife and I talked about you all the way home. I could see you in so many things.' "

Kwiatkowski gamely went along, signed with the agency and almost immediately went to her first audition. She was there alongside experienced actresses and models who carried thick portfolios of pictures of themselves. All Kwiatkowski had in the way of a headshot was a picture taken for the rectory book for Saint John's parish, but she didn't bring that. Someone took a Polaroid for the audition but it didn't come out very well.

"I thought I had bombed out totally," she says.

The next morning, she got a call. "They said, 'You got the job!' and I said, 'Please don't joke with me.' "

And that's how the retired Kailua saleswoman got in the Bank of Hawaii commercial.

"It was so much fun," Kwiatkowski said of the shoot.

"They were going to make me a grandmother but when I got there, they looked at me and said, 'Let's make her an aunty' and I told my friends, 'I got upgraded!' "

The commercial is currently running on local TV stations.

The second audition Kwiatkowski went on was for a print ad for a real estate development. She booked that job, too, and will now be seen on brochures and posters for homes in 'Ewa Beach. Her third audition in that first month was for macadamia nuts. Again, she went not knowing what to expect. "I got out of the elevator and there were so many beautiful gray-haired women standing there I wanted to turn around go right back in the elevator and close the doors. These women were so beautiful and some had those books with their pictures in it that were two inches thick."

Ah, the competitive world of Hawai'i's Next Top Tutu Model.

Kwiatkowski is taking it all as a lark. She never dreamed she'd be doing things like making commercials or getting her picture taken. Then again, she had a bit of a heads-up.

Just before all of this happened, Kwiatkowski was told by Honolulu psychic Lon Vo that she would be starting a new career. "I told her, 'No, I'm retired! I love being retired!' "

"She told me, 'No, no, you're going to wear pretty clothes and smile at people and walk on stage and you're going make commercials, too.' "

Kwiatkowski, who got that last name when she married Marine drill instructor Melvin Kwiatkowski almost 50 years ago, is half Chinese, half Portuguese. The closest thing she's ever done to "show business" is when she entered the Miss Narcissus pageant when she was 17. She's now being recognized from the Bank of Hawaii commercial when she's out in public with the, "Hey, that's YOU isn't it?!" questions.

ADR agency director Nazarene Anderson says, "She has already become popular and she has started to take acting classes, so there is no limitations as to what Marie will be able to do."

"Imagine!" Kwiatkowski says. "At my age!"

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.