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SY: And how about your younger sister and brother? They, they...

HS: My sister died when she was six years old, in 1932. She had peritonitis, and that really broke Mom's heart. And my older brother, he didn't, we didn't really do too much together with my older brother, but my younger brother, Tak, and I were more close.

SY: So when your sister died, was that, was she given good care? Was she taken... I mean, was the medical care then good for her?

HS: We had a doctor's office next door, a little suite with a dentist and a couple of doctors. Yeah. And when I had... I don't remember going to a dentist at all before the war. I didn't have any cavities, but I don't remember actually going to a dentist before the war. We were very poor. [Laughs] So that's why my teeth are never straight, never had orthodontics. It was too expensive, anyway. We could never have afforded it.

SY: How about the doctor care? Your sister must've spent time --

HS: We had an Armenian, Dr. Kelian. And I remember when my sister was dying, why, then he came, and he would come to the house. Doctors at that time made house calls. I wasn't sick that often.

SY: And how long was your sister ill before she passed away?

HS: I don't know how long she lasted. All I remember is that she went to White Memorial Hospital and she died a little later. But the doctors at that time, he said it was blood poisoning, blood poisoning. But that's, that's all I believed in, is she died of blood poisoning, until about, what, thirty years later when, after we're moving around and then I was unpacking some stuff. Why, then I saw on her death certificate that she died of peritonitis. I says, that's a ruptured appendix, that's what she died of. But all my dad ever said and the doctor said is it's just blood poisoning.

SY: Wow. That must have been a difficult time for your family, then, too.

HS: Yeah, my mother, being the only girl, she was really cute.

SY: You were how old when she passed away?

HS: She was six, I was eight. My younger brother was four. It was two years apart.

SY: So you're pretty young too.

HS: Yeah.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.