<Begin Segment 18>

AI: Before we -- excuse me. Before we go too far ahead there, I do want to back up a bit --

TY: Yeah.

AI: -- now because I wanted to ask you if the two of you remembered anything about Joe's birth when he was born, around that time and --

TY: Oh, yeah, a bit -- quite vividly actually.

AI: -- what, what you recall about that, about that time.

MY: Well, I wanted a sister. You know, I already had two brothers and --

TY: She knew what they were like. [Laughs]

MY: Yeah, I thought it was very unfair we had another brother. [Laughs] I was very mad. But then once he came -- you know, once he came home, my mother was in the hospital for a while, right?

TY: Yeah.

MY: They wouldn't let her out because she was sick.

TY: Yeah.

MY: Remember? She --

TY: She stayed in the hospital.

MY: Yeah, she got --

TY: Yeah.

MY: -- she got pneumonia or something like that in the hospital. She, she claims that they left her in front of an open window or something like that, and she got cold. And, and she had pneumonia, and I think her arm got paralyzed or something --

TY: Yeah, paral-, yeah, paralysis in her --

MY: -- she had a paralysis in her arm.

TY: -- one of the arm, one of her arms.

MY: Her right arm, yeah. And so she was not able to carry the baby, so my dad hired a full-time nurse -- Teru Uno, a nurse to take care of you. So then all three of you came home together from the hospital. Teru came from the hospital with you, and she came -- she was carrying you. So I remember that, that Teru Uno, she was very properly dressed as a nurse with a cap and, and I, I was remembering very, with white stockings, and she came.

TY: Uh-huh.

MY: And she was a member of a rather prominent family, right, in --

TY: Teru Uno.

MY: Teru Uno?

TY: Teru Uno, that's Paul Uno's sister.

MY: Sister, yeah. And so she stayed with us for quite some time while --

TY: Well, she was live-in and --

MY: She was a live-in nurse for my mom and, and Joe.

TY: Well, do you, do you have a picture of you on the porch --

MY: With Teru? Yeah.

TY: -- sitting on the porch with Teru carrying you?

JY: Not, no --

TY: And we, I think, were sitting.

JY: I don't know about that, but I have a picture --

TY: You don't have a --

JY: -- of her when I must have been two or three.

MY: No, I remember seeing it.

TY: Yeah, I remember seeing the picture. Don't you have that?

JY: I don't think so.

TY: Mother might have given that to you. But I, I remember -- distinctly remember the picture. Because you were just --

JY: I have one picture of me with her, but I was a -- looks like I was maybe eighteen months or something.

TY: No, no, no.

MY: No, you were a baby --

TY: You were just a baby --

MY: -- and you were standing, and, you know, there was a flight of stairs on the long side of the house?

JY: Yeah.

MY: Isn't that what you're talking about? And she's sitting at --

TY: Yeah, it's the back stair.

MY: -- back stair, yeah.

TY: Back stair, yeah.

MY: I thought it was on the side.

TY: No.

MY: And she was, she was sitting there, and you could see her stocking --

TY: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

MY: -- white stocking.

TY: White stocking.

MY: And she was sitting there --

JY: Hmm.

MY: -- stand-, sitting on the stair with her --

TY: With her, with her nurse uniform, with her hat and her whole, whole bit.

MY: That was when you first --

JY: Not that particular picture. I have another one, as I said, but not that one.

TY: Is that right?

JY: Yeah.

TY: Well, maybe I have it among -- I should look for it, then.

MY: And then when -- and of course, you know, I was, Joe was like a toy for me. I was feeding -- I was changing him and feeding him. And he was like a little doll or --

TY: I don't remember doing that myself, but I guess you must have done all that.

MY: Yeah, I did all that. Took care of him, changed his diapers.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2002 Densho. All Rights Reserved.