<Begin Segment 20>

JY: You know, Teri came to San Jose about, maybe five, six years ago.

MY: Oh, really?

JY: Uh-huh. And, and I had her -- she was visiting her granddaughter or something in Santa Cruz.

TY: Well, she had come to Seattle first to visit a friend -- you know, she grew up here. So she came and visit here, and then I saw her then. She came on up to see Mother at Kawabe House.

MY: Uh-huh.

TY: And she asked me for your address.

JY: So that's how she found me then?

TY: Yeah.

MY: Uh-huh.

TY: An address, and I gave it to her.

JY: Yeah, so we had her over for dinner.

TY: And she was -- yeah. She said she was going down to California.

MY: So what did she tell you about when you were a baby?

JY: Well, what I -- you know, that picture that I was telling you I had of when I was -- you know, I must have been maybe eighteen months or whatever with her, and she had her uniform on?

TY: Yeah.

JY: And so I brought that out, and she said, "I remember that." And she's a lady that must be your age or older, when you guys were --

MY: Well, I was a child.

TY: Well, she must have been eighty-, I think she was eighty-four -- must have been eighty-five then. I mean she was --

MY: She's, I must, she must be over ninety.

TY: She's quite a bit older than --

MY: I'm eighty now.

TY: She's quite a bit older than we are.

JY: Yeah, and she said -- and she remembered, she said that she had bought the uniform specifically to apply for the job of being my --

TY: Nurse to our family, yeah.

JY: -- nurse or something. And she, and she remembered, she remembered -- and there was a black-and-white picture --

TY: Yeah.

JY: -- but she remembered what color it was. It was, you know, the red, I forgot what the colors were, but I was just astonished that she had so much information about --

MY: Information.

JY: Yeah, about the color and --

TY: It was a blue uniform.

JY: -- where she bought it --

TY: It was a blue one.

JY: -- and when she bought it and, you know, it was just all this detail, it just amazed me, yeah.

TY: Oh, is that right?

MY: Hmm. That was a very defining moment for her, too, because --

JY: She said that was the first job she had had --

MY: Yeah.

TY: Oh, oh.

JY: -- out of nursing school.

MY: I wonder how Dad found her.

JY: I don't know.

MY: But, you know, to find a Japanese American wom-, woman nurse, which was not too common in those days.

TY: Well, Dad, Dad knew an awful lot of people, so he must have by --

JY: Yeah.

TY: -- word by mouth, I think, that she must have gotten him some information that Teru was looking for a job.

MY: But he was looking for somebody who speaks Japanese.

JY: How long, how long was she with us? I mean with me, for, as a --

MY: About a year?

TY: Well, at least a year, I'd guess.

JY: Hmm. She lived at our house?

MY: Yeah.

TY: Yeah, she lived there.

JY: Really?

MY: But, you know, it took Mom a long time to recover from -- because she, she couldn't use her arm.

JY: Hmm.

TY: Well, who -- during that time --

MY: Yeah.

JY: -- who did the cooking?

MY: We had --

TY: Did we have some lady at our house --

MY: Yeah --

TY: -- doing the cooking?

MY: -- I did -- I forgot what, what her name was.

TY: I'll be darned. I don't remember the lady -- or who, the individual who did the housework for her.

MY: Yeah, I remember her, but I, I don't remember her name.

TY: Huh. Isn't that strange? I remember Teri very vividly, but I don't remember who was at the house helping with the meals. Well, that's interesting. Okay.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2002 Densho. All Rights Reserved.