<Begin Segment 24>

[Ed. note: This transcript has been edited by the narrator]

TI: Okay, let's talk about that before we go back to Seattle. The rural nursing and what that was like.

SA: Well, they asked for volunteers, and instead of just staying on at the hospital with nursing, there was a chance to do rural nursing. I had read about how great it was because, not in the workforce, but you (in rural nursing) would get to do deliveries and things like that, plus being out on your own, so I signed up. I was the only one, I didn't know that, but I did get, this, again, a ticket out. I think they gave us the fare by bus from (...) Rochester to Itasca, Grand Rapids, Minnesota. And I was joined by three others (from the) Minneapolis territory. It was two from Minneapolis General Hospital and one from St. Paul's, so there were four of us girls. So we all got (...) together on the bus, and we were discussing what great fun we'd have together. We got along so well, I was really enchanted with the idea I could go with these girls and we'd have fun up there. [Laughs] It wasn't to be, in a way, and it was (all right in) other ways 'cause we worked together. But when we got there, and we got there at eight p.m. at night, which didn't help, it was getting dark, (and since) it's up north, north toward the (Canadian) border, (it was cold). And so they, Ilo Myers was the coordinator for this rural nursing experience (a), field thing. So she said, she didn't say anything (to me) when she picked us up at the bus stop, that was the whole problem. And maybe she didn't want the others to know, I don't know. So when we stopped at the only apartment available in this forty-family village from where we went out (on the road and where) we also manned the small hospital there. She dropped off the three, and I was trying to get my bags out, too, and then she told me to put 'em back, and I thought, "What is this?" Anyway, that was my first encounter on my own against this racial thing. And she said, "You have to come back in, Sharon." I said, "Why?" And she said, "I'll tell you about it in the (car)." So I think the other three girls were just as amazed, 'cause I know they looked back and they were wondering why I had to get back in there. And I don't think they realized it 'til I met them later. And she, (Ilo Meyer) must have talked to them, because it never came up again. Meanwhile, she drove me to this house, and it was a nice little house. But then to my astonishment, they were (both deaf and mute).

TI: Before we talk about that, so during that ride from the apartments where she dropped off the three, to this house, did she explain?

SA: Well, she said that the war had been over but the veterans were returning, and some people in town had lost some of their (sons), so they would not understand (my being there). But she did find me a place, but she didn't tell me until we were almost at the door that they were (both) deaf mutes.

TI: And while she was talking to you about this, how did you feel? I mean, what did you think?

SA: Well, I was really upset. In the first place, I never lived with handicapped (folks and) I didn't know what to expect, and I didn't like the idea that (I was) kind of isolated from the rest of the girls. But (...) I guess I must have really looked very upset, because I asked -- we don't call them deaf mutes -- it's hard of hearing, they (use that) term. I asked the people that greeted me that night, the Stoke family (how I looked to them, that first meeting). And they said I really looked mad. But there was no point in my talking to them because they can't hear. And so I thought, "Wow." And they were being very frugal, well, they are to some extent, but the house was cold all the time 'cause they wouldn't put up the temp. They were wearing sweaters, but I'm not used to that. And (...) they had two children, three and five, and when I went in, the first thing they did was to sit me down at a table and they had this paper. (They wrote me questions and) so I'm writing the answers down so they could read it. But they told me that these were the rules, and I thought, "Boy." And it was, "Answer the door," and they put down in parentheses, the dog had died, that he would jump up and down at the door if somebody (...) rang the doorbell. And now it was my job (to answer the doorbell), and would I answer the ring on the telephone, (because) they can't, but to write down anything. 'Cause the children would answer it, but Royal was only five years old, but he already could do sign language. This was interesting, the child was used, like she would go to the store, he'd do the talking and she'd (use sign language) and he would tell them (what) she wanted (like) thread, she wanted needles, and things like that. So, actually, Royal was my best helper. Darryl, on the other hand, was three, and he, of course, he didn't like the idea -- and I didn't know this 'til much later -- (that his folks couldn't speak to him). He's also a Fulbright Scholar and actually studied six years in Japan. And he said he didn't know why he was doing these things, (learning Japanese, etcetera), for the fact that somehow, at age three, it came across to him that I was Japanese, I guess. And he said he, and his whole home (was decorated with) shoji screens and (...) he could never understand why he (liked things Asian). And he liked a girl in Hawaii, (too), who was of Japanese ancestry, he didn't get her unfortunately. He's still single (and) he's a wonderful guy, he's a professor at Emory University.

TI: So what Darryl was saying, so you probably influenced --

SA: Well, that's what he said. He said he didn't realize it 'til he came for some meeting in Seattle and I invited him over. And, of course, when his folks came, thirty-eight years later, (...) they drove up when (we lived) in the Seward Park house, and Darryl came, too. So he finally realized what the whole thing was about.

TI: 'Cause he didn't realize you were Japanese back then?

SA: He must have known, (but he was only three years old). I didn't know 'til later, but he's just wonderful in that when he took his sabbatical at Irving, he got a place on Laguna Beach and he wired me to come on down and he brought his folks in from (Minnesota). We had a great reunion down there, he (treated). He's now in Peru on a two-year (teaching contract but) he should be back soon. But (we want him to come and stay with us) when he comes to town.

<End Segment 24> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.