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NW: Well, speaking of their grandmother, your daughter Wendy had mentioned during the break a question about some of those strong family values that you had mentioned serving other people, kind of that independent spirit a little bit. Can you tell me about how, where those values came from?

MW: Yeah, if she was of this generation, she would have been a fireball. [Laughs] She read a lot and she believed in, I think she felt... partly because she had, at one time, she worked so hard when they were starting out in the business that she had a breakdown in health. And so she was a great believer in taking care of your body because if you don't, you can't do what you want to do. So I inherited that thought and spirit in being a nurse. So I'm teased when I talk about, in terms of good nutrition, what you should do. Well, when I think about it, my Sunday school teacher had said, "Your body is only borrowed, and you need to take care of it." And so I've always felt that we need to respect our bodies. And then Mom had a warm, giving spirit. All my life I remember her taking people in, feeding people, and she was a very friendly, open person. And I don't think... she didn't become suppressed by, Wendy was mentioning the incident when you're in a community where there is obvious prejudice. So if you go to a beauty establishment or haircut, there's prejudice. But my mother dressed up my brother very clean and neat and took him to get a haircut. And they weren't paying much attention, but she just sat there until they would wait on her. And eventually, of course, we all went there. I had the first permanent in the community of Japanese. [Laughs] That's just incidental. You're not taking all this down, that's to be cut out.

NW: That's a nice story.

MW: I mean, when I think about it, I think she's not a person that's hikkomiya, you know. She was kind, but she was, I think, proud of what she is, and expected to be respected. But we had many people live in our house temporarily. My mother would give big parties for my class of twelve or thirteen, and it was a very small, it was related to the college, but it was called College Elementary, and that's where I went from first grade. So my graduating class was about that big, I think, as I remember. She would have big picnics at the One Mile Dam. And you know, our class had dances and I was accepted. And I think it's partly because when you become a community member and say, "I'm worthy," it's not spoken. It's something that you have to say in different ways. And I think she did that.

NW: It's kind of the values that you carried forward.

MW: Yeah. And I think without realizing I have a sense of worth and trying to find that in other people. So even when I was working, I liked the... well, I guess I was wasn't working when I was in Columbus when my two children were still in school. Wendy was just starting kindergarten, I remember, and she was a follower of her sister, of course. And I remember seeing them going off to school. It's kind of a hard time when your kids are grown. Lori would always, if they had a party at school, she'd always bring a piece of candy or whatever it was to share with her sister. Wendy would follow her, and yet, at times, she was the individual. And so she made decisions later in life without consulting her mother. Like going to work in an Indian reservation during the summer. And she just tells me she's going to do that. Or she's going to work with the Mennonites in Seattle.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2018 Densho. All Rights Reserved.