<Begin Segment 50>

AI: Well, you were in practice for a very long time.

RI: I was in practice for forty-six years. And I, like most people retire at sixty-five, but around sixty-five I didn't feel like retiring and my secretary was sixty, so, she wouldn't be retiring. She wouldn't, if she, if I retired she'd have to find a new job. And then there were still a lot of Isseis around and they said, "Well, please don't retire, we don't know what to do," it's mostly this speaking Japanese. And so we worked until seventy, until I was seventy. Then, at seventy I still felt physically well and still interested, and there were still Issei people around, so I said, "Okay, few more years." But by the time I was seventy-five, and my secretary was sixty-five, so she would have been ready to retire, and then there was a lot of computer work going on, and I would have had to change my whole office into a computer-operated office because that was the new way to do things, and I was doing everything the old-fashioned way, regular typewriter and all that, so I knew I would've had to change over, which would have been very costly. And then I decided that mentally I was slowing down, and, a little more forgetful, and that kind of thing, and I thought, "I should quit before I make a big mistake," and to make a big mistake in medicine would be very, very tragic, and I wanted to be ahead of that. So I decided I'd better quit. And I knew that intellectually I wasn't as sharp as I used to be. [Laughs] You know how you are. So, I'm glad I quit at that time, even though lotta people said, "Oh no, you're still okay," but you know, they're just saying that because they wanted me to practice some more. But by then, I wasn't interested in the income and so I didn't necessarily need that kind of work.

So, since retiring, retiring hasn't been real easy for me because I've, I've liked to keep busy and to be doing something every day is my goal, and when I don't have much to do it makes me stressful and -- [laughs] -- and so every day I plan that, oh, I'm gonna do this or that and I do a lot of handwork and sewing and, right now, because of the sukiyaki dinner, I'm making this and that and then I always make things and bring to Keiro.

And oh, the reason why I make those sweatshirts with the tsuru on it, have you seen that? This is, oh, maybe fifteen years ago, I was at a cherry blossom festival and I was sitting to see a demonstration (by) a man who came from Takayama, Japan, and he was in charge of making banners, and I don't know, painting or sewing something on banners that were displayed on top. So I think he was doing tie-dye things, too, so I was sitting in a chair in front, waiting for the next demonstration to start and somebody called me out. So I went to another room and they said, "This man's daughter-in-law is here with him from Japan and she's not feeling good, so would you talk to her?" So I went to a back room and then I found out that her period was late. So of course, she was pregnant. But she said that, they're in another country and they don't know what to do and they... I said, "Well, there's such a thing as a pregnancy test you could buy at a Bartell Drug or somewhere." Well, they didn't know how to do it because of English and all that, so I said, "Okay, I'll take care of it." So, the mother-in-law came with me in my car and we went to pick this girl up at the hotel, Four Seasons, I think, and went to my office, and I had a pregnancy test and I got her urine, and tested it and it was positive. So as soon as we told her she was pregnant, then her nausea and vomiting, okay, she could live with it. So then, when I went back to this place to sit and watch his demonstration, he gave me a handkerchief that was hand-dyed and it said "Dr. Ruby" on the bottom and there was this tsuru on it. He had somehow made it for me, as a thank-you gift. So that was the pattern I got, and I made copies of it and then I've been making that tsuru ever since. And people ask me, "Where did you get that pattern?" Well, I say, oh, it's a long story -- [laughs] -- but something like that, one of my patients. Then the following year, I think they came back again and this time she brought this baby with her and wanted me to be sure to see him.

AI: That's a wonderful story.

RI: Yeah, there's always some story like that. But, it's interesting.

<End Segment 50> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.