<Begin Segment 24>

MN: So why did you and your mother decide to move back to California after your father died?

SA: Well, that was the main thing. Before he passed, many of his friends were in L.A., and he wanted to come visit. He came about two or three times to visit them, and to go visit them at the cemetery. For some odd reason, he was impressed with the street signs. I understand that's so in every cemetery, but we didn't know that. And he thought, "You know this is really nice. It's a little town with the little street signs, and know where your address is." So he always said he wanted to go -- well, he didn't really physically state that, but he mentioned that. So to such an extent that after he passed and he was in the mortuary, we had him at the top shelf of the mortuary, my mother was very upset that she'd have to see him way up there. So we decided the time has come where we had to bury him. So my sister had to go to Evergreen and look around, and she said, "I found the perfect spot under a magnolia tree, reminding him of Louisiana, right near a street sign." And so she bought a plot. In order to bury him, I had him shipped (...) there, but we had to come out here. That was a deciding point for me to bring him here, bury him, and get a job at the same time.

MN: And for you, how difficult was it for you to leave New Orleans?

SA: I was very unhappy, 'cause I had made many friends, very close friends, and I was very happy. I had dreams of going to the Peace Corps or doing all these different things with my life, and my life just completely turned over because I was absolutely responsible for my mother now. So we decided to pull up stakes and left. But I had very good friends who helped me make a decision and move. I don't know if I wrote about it (but) the Yenaris, (my) very close friends, (were) so good to me. He had a jewelry store and helped me really make the final (decision) to come out here. And I drove all the way with my mother.

MN: So how long did you live out in New Orleans?

SA: Thirteen years.

MN: So when you moved back to Los Angeles, you were able to find a job in Lynwood at the St. Francis Hospital, you were a microbiologist. As a microbiologist, what did you do there?

SA: Well, we work in a laboratory. We examine specimens, patient specimens to find organisms. Because I was a microbiologist, I was hired primarily to help set up that department which needed a little shaping up. But I hadn't worked in a hospital before, I'm from the state health department. It was a new change for me, but I managed, and we had to rotate to all the departments so that you're able to work all shifts every day of the week to rotate. I went back to the whole thing, learning, retraining, to be able to work in every department. But we have a license to do that anyway. It was primarily to set up the microbiology department.

MN: When you were there, how many Asian Americans were working there?

SA: None. But there was a Nisei (female) pharmacist, and I met her at the hospital. None in the laboratory.

MN: How did your coworkers treat you?

SA: Fine. Except for the name Evelyn, they didn't like it, but other than that, they were very good to me.

MN: So your coworkers were all Caucasians?

SA: Right. Back in those days, right.

MN: And this is back in the '50s, what was Lynwood like?

SA: Oh, very nice. Clean city, ninety percent Seventh Day Adventists, very, very nice. The physicians on the staff were extra nice to me, very, very nice.

MN: And you were sharing about what happened to your husband's cousin?

SA: Right. She was a social worker working for the L.A. (County). She had a case, and (she had to go) to the city at about five-thirty, she was stopped by the police and was asked to leave because no Asians were allowed in the city of Lynwood. That was in the '50s.

MN: Was it just no Asians or no minorities were allowed after dark?

SA: I would say, well, she stuck out because she was an Asian, but it was all minorities. It was really a Caucasian, white neighborhood. And, of course, I mentioned Seventh Day Adventists because they had an academy right on Imperial Highway.

<End Segment 24> - Copyright &copy; 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.