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TI: I now want to go to the death of your mother. So when you were a child, your mother became ill and died. Can you describe what happened? What happened to your mother, why did she become ill?

VW: Well, I think she had what you call Bright's disease, which is almost unheard of now, 'cause they have medication that'll take care of that right away. But I believe that that, I believe that that was a kind of a kidney type disease. But going back, after Len was born, I think she had a hysterectomy and, because they said that she couldn't have any more children, it'd be too hard on her. And she was a very hard worker type individual. And so she became ill. And I was up in the bedroom sleeping, and pretty soon I heard the girls crying downstairs. And I thought they were fighting, and I yelled down, like all brothers might, "Stop fighting," or something like that. And then they yelled up, they said, "Mom died." And that was a huge shock. Kids evidently don't think that a person is near death maybe, I don't know. Or maybe we didn't go to maybe check on it, I don't know. But she passed away when I was thirteen, and I was in eighth grade at the time. And it was a very sad situation, very sad. And so then my dad had five kids, and his wife died and our mother. And I remember we were going to the funeral and I was sitting in the back seat on the left-hand side of the car. And, well, I noticed that a car had, was coming toward us. And the roads were so narrow that he pulled off on the side and then waited. And he took off his hat and he knew that that was, we were going to the funeral of my mother.

TI: Do you recall who this gentleman was that --

VW: Yeah. He was, he and my dad were estranged because he accused my dad of... my dad used to share farm, share farming with him along with the farm that my dad had, too. And then he, he was a Chicago man, that guy was. And he accused my dad of not dividing the corn right, and that my dad had taken more than he should have and so on. And, of course, my dad was so honest, he would never do anything like that. So they became very estranged. And so my dad never talked to him, and he never came to talk to my dad or anything. He wasn't a good man, but yet again, just because my mom had died and so on, he pulled off to the side of the road and took his hat off, and I thought that was, that was pretty nice that he would do that, even though he didn't like our family at all because of that. Because he had accused us of taking corn. And my dad would never, never ever do that. And so Dad... but that gesture was, I've never forgotten that. These are things that maybe young people remember and never forget.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.