<Begin Segment 14>

TI: Your husband Bob passed away, when was that?

DI: It's been hard since he passed away.

TI: Not very long ago, was it?

DI: It's only been about ten months, yeah. Passed away in May. More than ten months. I thought I was all right, but when I think back, I've just been in a fog, I think, thinking I was all right. And I'm doing things I never had to do before; he did all the office work, the tax work, and it's all new ground for me. It's very difficult for me; it's not my field. So I'll be better next year, I'll know what's involved. But this year, it's been very difficult. So I had my brothers help me, my daughter helping me, and just keeping my fingers crossed that once this year is over and I've gone through this one whole year of being by myself, that it'll be better next year. I've gone through it, I can do it next year. But I've been fooling myself for a year that I'm doing okay, and I really wasn't. I'm just kind of starting to come awake, and there's all kinds of things that need doing. And what's worrying me is my memory is... my short term memory is really getting bad. And I think that's just part of the shock of losing Bob, too. I'm just kind of running away from it, but I've got to get my feet on the ground and get myself together this coming year. So as long as... I think my heart's just fine. We'll find out.

TI: Are there any other stories you wanted to share in the meantime?

DI: Oh, I don't know. All my life has been taken up getting the girls into adulthood, and now they're seniors themselves. My last one is going to be fifty this Sunday. That really makes me feel old. And they tell me, "Mom, makes you feel old? We feel old, too. We can't believe we're in our fifties." So somewhere, somehow, the time has passed, and it's hard to believe, but I want to see how everything turns out in the next five to ten years. I hope I can. We'll see.

Tom Ikeda: I just have one question going back. During the war you went to Utah, and you came across quite a few Mormons. And I was just curious how the Mormon religion or Mormons accepted Japanese Americans in Utah?

DI: Oh, they accepted us just fine. As far as our family is concerned, I think at that time, we were their source of labor; they really needed us. And so they were really good about befriending us, but they didn't try to brainwash us to get us into their religion or anything. They would bring it up... if we wanted to, we can come and join their... I don't remember. It's called, some kind of a get-together that they had, it's a socializing type of thing, but we never went. But they would have, at the end of a fruit season they'd have big canning get-togethers, they would invite us, my mother to come and join them for the canning. She did her own canning. But they were always hospitable. And we were just accepted and very comfortable with them. We knew how strong their religion was with them, but they didn't try to really shove it down our throats. They kind of gently introduced me to the New Testament and the church history and things like that. But if I had any knowledge of it, and they had more... what is it, stronger personality, more analytical mind, I would have probably said something. But as it is, I just went along with everything. I accepted what they told me and just went along with it. Which is fine; I learned a lot. No, they were very good to us.

TI: Thank you, Dorothy.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright &copy; 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.