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AI: And excuse me, what was Fumiko's relationship now, to you?
MY: She was my cousin. She was my mom's older sister's daughter. And her father was a doctor. My uncle was a doctor. And he was one who had taken a second wife rather quickly, which kind of appalled both my cousins. My cousin kept saying, well, she was quite upset. 'Cause she was a teenager at that time. I think I was --
TY: Well, she still corresponds with her and talks to her on the phone periodically.
MY: I talk to her on the phone. See, my mother died in 1997, at ninety-eight. I used to, when she was living with me. And I just didn't have anybody to talk Japanese to, and I was getting kind of rusty. So I thought, well, I'll call -- so I called Fumiko up about once a month to talk to her and chat with her and find out how she's doing. And she's in her nineties now, Fumiko is. But she's doing well, she's okay. And then I call Asako, my other cousin. Asako was another, the other cousin who was the youngest daughter of my mother's oldest brother. He's, did you know Motoko? Mike knew her very well.
TY: Yeah, I met Motoko, yeah.
MY: It was Motoko's youngest sister. Asako is.
TY: Is what? Asako?
MY: Yeah, yeah. She's the only one left in that family.
TY: Asako.
MY: Yeah, Asako.
TY: Is she the one in Beppu?
MY: Asako-san. No, that's Sachiko-san.
TY: Oh. Can't get the, keep these relatives straight.
MY: But anyway, those are the two women that I, my cousins, they're my first cousins. And so Fumiko and I became very close, so we've kept in constant touch. And her daughters came, her two grandchildren, granddaughters and her daughter came out to California and we took them around. Did they go up to San Francisco? No. That was only Makiko.
JY: No, the one that lives in Yokohama and her daughter.
MY: Oh, Keiko.
JY: Keiko. Keiko and her daughter.
MY: Okay. Keiko is Fumiko's daughter.
JY: Right.
MY: So, so we're, pretty much keep in close touch with our relatives in Japan.
<End Segment 27> - Copyright © 2002 Densho. All Rights Reserved.