<Begin Segment 6>
TI: Talk about your mother, what was she like?
JN: She was so quiet, I cannot... in a sense, it was like my grandfather. I can't recall his voice. My mother, too, was very quiet and reserved. She was really reserved. So that's in contrast not only to my father, but to my grandmother who went around talking all the time. My mother was so quiet and reserved, I think she was uptight most of the time. And, of course, at age forty-five, she died of a heart attack or stroke. She died of a stroke.
TI: Well, so she had, with you, you were the seventh child, and plus, she had her in-laws staying in the house, too. So how did that, was that also sometimes stressful for her?
JN: It must have been, but I never noticed. It never occurred to us. All I remember was my grandmother walking around having a nice time, talking, talking. She was really a sweet old lady. But I guess like my father, she wasn't that responsible. But she helped around, I know, she worked around the house.
TI: Interesting, it seems like you see your mom almost -- a martyr is not the right word, but kind of the one who had to do, hold things together in some ways while your father was partying maybe a little bit, and your grandmother was out and about.
JN: Yeah, I think so. My guess, again, I hardly knew my mother because she hardly said anything. But I'm guessing she felt a lot of shame about my father, she must have felt like... I think she was, and I know she was embarrassed having her child, my kid sister twelve years later, because she was forty-something years old at that time. And yes, and she was uptight most of the time. And yet, I stuck to her like glue, because she was the only one I could feel safe with, I think. I didn't, couldn't feel I could rely on my grandmother or my father.
TI: Well, she must have felt a lot of comfort with you, too, I mean, as the youngest, just having someone that...
JN: Maybe. Maybe she was holding on to me, too, I don't remember.
<End Segment 6> - Copyright ©2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.