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RI: But to this day, I think the thing I cherish the most about my practice is, well, aside from the Issei, contact with the Issei people, are my deliveries. I loved to see my babies, I call them, and some of 'em are fifty years old. But I like to see them doing well, that, not necessary the president of the United States, but doing well, and accomplishing things. But, I would say that since I started to take records... I don't remember, or I don't have a record of the, my first couple years, but after that I think I had a record of about 1,020 babies that I delivered, and lot of 'em are around now. Oh, one of the things that my children used to tell me was that, my children were in class with a lot of the babies that I had delivered and they were friends. So I think they were sort of proud that I was their doctor because maybe a friend of my daughter's would say, "Oh, your mom's my doctor," or something like that. So they were proud of that.

And then, one time, my daughter, my youngest daughter was at Bailey Gatzert and she was telling me that she and her friend were constantly being hassled by another girl in their class who was asking them for their lunch money. So that had happened several times. And she said, "Oh, but," she said, "if you don't give them the money, she's gonna beat me up." So I was incensed by it. So then I took the time and went to Bailey Gatzert and talked to -- well, the secretary was Sachi -- and then she called the principal in and I told her about it. And of course she called this girl who was bothering them and punished her, I don't know how. But after that, my daughter said to me, "Mom, I'm so glad you went and talked to them about it," that I cared, you know? And then this other friend, I guess her mother wouldn't do it but my daughter was proud that I went. So I tried to be very careful to stick up for my kids. And so I think that to this day they're, they're alright, and they're doing well, and... I'm glad because that was what I would have worried about my working so that I made sure that they were taken care of.

DG: How many hours of sleep did you think you got those days? [Laughs]

RI: Oh, at least six. No, I don't feel deprived. Well, because I was healthy. If I stayed up at night delivering a baby, the next day I'm sure I made it up. And most of the times babies came in the middle of the night. There wasn't many instances when I had to take off from the office when patients are waiting in the waiting room and I had to go deliver a baby. Well, every now and then I had to do that, but I said, "Well, I'll be back in one hour or two hours," and some of 'em would reschedule, but a lot of 'em waited, but most of the babies came at night. But I don't know if they do now, but maybe they're scheduled better now.

AI: Well, you had your hands full for quite a while because your, your own kids were born 1953, '54 and '57.

RI: Uh-huh.

AI: So you, as you described, you had so many things --

RI: Yeah, I had lotta...

AI: -- to take care of.

RI: I think that, fortunately, I'm very well-organized. And so I, when I look back I wonder how I did all that. But, I think what I disliked the most was having to figure out what to eat for that night. Sometime during the day I'm thinking, "Gosh, what shall we eat tonight?" And the first thing I do when I get home is, before I take my coat off I'm opening the refrigerator door trying to get food out and figure out what to eat. But as soon as the kids were old enough I started to assign them one day a week when they're gonna cook. And so, it could be something very simple like hamburger or... but I remember that my son would ask the cook at school for a recipe, and he brought home several recipes, one time it was a chili recipe. And -- [laughs] -- to this day I have that recipe. But they were interested in knowing what they should cook, but I made them responsible for that. My husband wasn't a good cook. And he wasn't very good at doing any kind of housework. But I'm sure that he did a lot of chauffeuring and taking kids to school when I'm not there or being home, anyway.

<End Segment 43> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.