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TI: Okay, before we get there, though, I want to get back... so your mother and father come to Portland, and then they have you. Well, no, first they have your sister and then they have you. Your mother passed away when you were quite young, and I kind of wanted to go through that before you went on.

ST: Yes. She passed away the day before my second birthday. And she had, my father explained it to us that she had a brain tumor, and it was pressure on her brain, and she was in terrible pain. In those days, of course, you didn't know what to do, they didn't have CAT scans or anything, so you couldn't see what was going on. But the diagnosis of the doctor was that she must have a brain tumor, because the pain would sort of come and go, and sometimes it was very fierce. And so the doctor said, "Well, she can't go on this way," and that surgery was the only thing. Of course, this was back in 1932, and so he said he didn't know whether she would recover from the surgery, but that was her only chance, because the pain was so terrible. and so the surgery, they had surgery, and then my sister recalls going to the hospital when her mother was in the hospital. And she remembers that part, and my mother lingered, I think, in a coma for probably, for a short time, I don't know how long. Couple days, maybe, or so, and then she died, because that was just too traumatic.

TI: And so she was, like, in her late twenties?

ST: She was about, let's see now. She was born in 1896, I think, let's see. She was born in 1896, so in 1932, she would have been...

TI: Oh, so about thirty-six or so.

ST: Yeah.

TI: Okay. But very young.

ST: Yes. For us, we would consider it young. For that time, she was probably considered rather old to be having children when you think about it.

TI: And so at this point, your sister is seven.

ST: Seven, and in school.

TI: And you are two.

ST: And I was two. So, like I was saying, my father decided he was not, he was going to do this on his own. He was gonna prove that he could be a father and mother, but he knew he could not handle the baby, so he knew he had to have someone else take care of me. At this time, he did not want to get married, he did not know of anybody who he trusted to raise me during the day, you know, have like daycare or something like that, so he was talking with one of his good friends who was on the, who had a nursery, a very large nursery over in southeast Portland. And across the street from him lived this family. It was a widow, and she had six children, and she was a very fine, respected member of the community. Everybody looked up to her because she was able to raise these children, they were all well-behaved, they were fed and clothed and they were, she had good control over them, and they were a nice family. And she was a staunch Baptist, she was a church-going person. So he said to Dad, "I'm sure they could use the money," because she had no money, really. And he said, "I live just across the street, and so if anything happens, I can be there, and I can kind of keep an eye on things." And so that's where I went.

And she was Swedish. She was actually an immigrant, her father had had a very large farm in Sweden, and he was an adventurer. He wanted to come to the United States and seek the new life. So he and his wife and all of his younger children who were six girls, it was a huge family... he was actually only going to bring five girls, and the oldest one was this one who lived across the street, her name was Marie. And she begged to go, too, because she wanted to go to the United States. And he said, she begged and begged, and finally he said, "Okay, I'll take six." The oldest girl stayed home and the farm was ample to sustain them, and they knew how to run the farm. I think they were prosperous because she said to me one time when I was asking about her life there, she said, "Well, we had a big old farmhouse because we had a big family." But she says, "I think we were fairly well-off because my mother had the only sewing machine in the whole valley." So that was the mark. So they landed in New York, they took the train across, and her father was set to, he wanted to have some kind of a lumber mill or something. So he bought some equipment or something -- this is the story. They got on the ship, and they went up the river until he said, "I'm going to decide when I find the right place." I'm not quite sure, but they stopped at Baker, Oregon. And as I think, Baker, Oregon, is kind of in a not very, lumber type place, but kind of a hot place, but I don't know. But anyway, that's where she landed, and she went to high school. And somehow she met this young man from England. And she fell in love and married, and they moved to Portland, he built her this house, and she had six children, one right after the other. And unfortunately, he was not, he was a good provider, but he just couldn't take six children. And so one day he went to the store to get cigarettes or something, and he didn't come back. But later, he contacted her, he was in California, he became a building contractor, but she never considered herself divorced, because she believed in marriage for life. And she was a very loving person, and her whole family was very loving, and all her sisters. So to me, that was a really giant leap of faith for her to take me, even if it was she received money from my dad to, for my room and board.

TI: Well, really both ways, though. It was a leap of faith for your father to entrust you with this --

ST: Well, no, I think he had more control, see. But for her, the way she approached it, it was like I was just a new daughter. And I called her "Mommy," and in fact, I asked... and her youngest daughter, Mary, I don't know whether she was assigned me or whether she took it on herself, but she was my mentor. And she felt it was up to her to raise me up into a proper young lady. And she would always be giving me etiquette lessons, you know, how I was supposed to... I received more etiquette lessons from her than I ever gave my children. How to sit at the table, and how to keep your elbows in, how to drink your soup off the side of the spoon, you're not supposed to just push it in your mouth, and, you know, all those lessons. And she felt if she tried hard enough, I would be perfect. And, but the whole family never treated me any differently. They were really very protective.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.