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BY: So you moved to Seattle from Walla Walla when George got sick, is that right?

MK: Yes.

BY: Okay. But you were still in Walla Walla all that time? So when did you move to Seattle?

FN: I moved to Seattle when, just before the virus hit, and that was 2019. Anyway, I had just come back from a trip with my son down to Lake Tahoe, and that's when the virus... so we had to be in quarantine. And I had been diagnosed with kidney failure, and so my daughter and son didn't want me to be alone in Walla Walla during the virus. And having this kidney problem, they decided to move me, Leanne decided to move me to her house. So then I came here.

BY: So then both you and Mary were living with Leanne then.

FN: Yes.

BY: Wow, okay.

FN: And so I moved with Leanne, and I was with Leanne for a year, then we moved here.

TI: Can I ask when Mary lost her hearing and how this has changed... so, Mary, when did you lose your hearing?

MK: We were going down to San Jose to a nephew's wedding down in San Jose. And I began to feel funny while I was going down there. And when I came back, we were staying overnight at Leanne's place, and so she took me to emergency, and I found out I had shingles. And so with all the shingles whatever, that's one of the things I lost.

TI: When did that happen?

MK: So then I got an operation and got this for the inner ear cochlea thing, but I was too late, I guess, because I still have it, but it doesn't work. So yeah, I can't hear anything, so all I do is go... [waves]. But you want to be alone because you can't hear a lot of times, so I have that problem. Anyhow, where I am now, I wave to everybody so they know, I guess, that I'm hard of hearing. [Laughs] But she's there for me to interpret a lot of things. So I'm enjoying life.

TI: Frances, when did Mary lose her hearing?

FN: I think she lost it about... let's see, we've been two or three, four... four or five years ago.

MK: Changed my life. Can't drive.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.