<Begin Segment 20>

TI: How did it change you to go through this process?

WY: Me? Well, it changed my whole life, because I was really in the dumps with my divorce. Seems like when I'm really in the dumps, something changes everything. I was really in the dumps.

TI: Yeah, because you were divorced '74, and then all these things happened with your play.

WY: Yeah, by '77, huh? And then my mother-in-law called me.

TI: How about your daughter? What was her reaction to all this? Because she would be in college at this point? Yeah, in college, probably.

WY: No, I don't think she was in college. She didn't make a big deal about it. I remember one time I was so miserable, I said, "Joy, I don't think I'm going to make it." She was sleeping, sound asleep, and I woke her up. That was after my divorce. "I don't think I'm going to make it." She says, "You're strong, you'll make it," then she rolls over. [Laughs]

TI: She probably knew that you were a survivor.

WY: Yeah, I guess so, huh?

TI: Did you ever hear from Chester about the...

WY: Oh, yeah.

TI: And what was his...

WY: He said, "We should never have gotten divorced." I was very polite, I said, "No, we shouldn't have." By that time, I'm a survivor, you know. I decided, "No one's gonna ever treat me like that again." I mean -- no, I didn't say that. I said, "I'm not gonna let anybody..." I tried not to blame anybody. I'm not gonna let anybody make me feel like that again.

TI: And so, you mean, the hurt that you felt going through the divorce, you didn't want that to happen again.

WY: Uh-huh, yeah.

TI: But by doing so, doesn't that kind of shut some of your emotions?

WY: Yes, it does. Yes, it does. But what can you do? That's what you are.

TI: But how does that impact you as a writer? Doesn't that kind of... what's the right word? Block you in some ways as a writer?

WY: Well, like Hisaye, now, you've read her stuff? I think she's a terrific writer. But one thing she doesn't do, she doesn't go in there. Did you find that? She says things like -- this is what I found out. Once, once of her relatives, her hair started falling out. I said, "That girl is under great stress." (Hisaye) said, "What are you talking about?" "Her hair is falling out. She's under great stress." She says, "That's not why her hair is falling out." See, she won't face it. And there's a lot of things she doesn't face. She said, "It was a permanent that she got." I said, "If it was the permanent, there'd be a rash of people having their hair fall out, because permanents come in gallon jugs, and (beauticians) take out what they need, and (...) put it on the hair." And the next one comes in, they take a little bit more. I said, "That's not why her hair is falling out, it's because she's having stress." (Hisaye) wouldn't believe that.

TI: But in the same way, when you made a decision that you weren't going to allow other people to hurt you that way, sometimes, isn't that feeling that you've felt...

WY: It's tearing yourself up.

TI: Yeah, but that's part of your writing, isn't it? I mean, when you look at, when I read some of your writings, that emotion comes through. And that's why I was wondering if that, for you to make that decision, doesn't it block some of your, that feeling, that writing?

WY: Well, maybe it does. Maybe it does. But that's the way I felt. I just said, I didn't blame it on him, because I knew that we were both very needy people and we were just clawing each other for our needs. So it wasn't his fault. But then by that time, by the time he discovered it, he'd already remarried and had two kids. Well, I had already, when he left and he got married, I (had) said, "That's it." I'm a survivor.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.