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YB: And as far as going out and having to look just so, I mean for formals, I had a very dear friend whose husband was Clarence's bodyguard during that cannery problem, and she was a very good seamstress. She says, "Don't worry." She says, "I'm going to keep you so well dressed, nobody will know." And she'll get an I. Magnin tag and stick it in my dress [Laughs] or in my little jacket that you can open up. And she did a real good job, and it would fit like a second skin. I couldn't wear it now, but even here to a zipper so nothing, everything was just skin tight. One of... Vogue's pattern she made for me, and I finally gave it to a girl; I couldn't get into it anymore. And so I managed to get by on very little, because she knew how to shop and sew. Otherwise, I don't think I would have made it. To go to formals, and then I'd make it formal, and then informal I wear a jacket and zip it up or close it, and change the top so nobody'd know I was wearing the same dress. And she'd worked it out for me very nicely, so I don't know how I got by with it. I had difficulty getting shoes 'cause I wore a one and a half. Now I can wear a four. My feet have grown.

So when I say happy, I had my happy moments, but I didn't have time to really go out and enjoy myself to the fullest because things were always busy; and I had to think about him at the office, what was happening, and what we had to do next, where we had to go, and what few clothes I had, what should I wear, how can I change it. And then for him too, I had to keep up his clothes, and we didn't have that many changes, but no one knew the difference that we did have just a few. Managed somehow 'cause this friend, Caucasian friend, really did lots to help. She was of German extraction. Ellingham, Claire Ellingham, and she really was a life saver.

<End Segment 34> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.