<Begin Segment 20>

PW: What were... I know you had the children, but did you have work that you had to do for the temple as well once you moved there?

HS: That's the one thing that was really good. My mother-in-law was always okusan. So I never had to do anything but raise the kids. So it really worked out well for myself, and my mother-in-law enjoyed it so much.

PW: Tell me more about her.

HS: Yeah. My father-in-law was otonashi, quiet. But my mother-in-law is the one that would have people over all the time. She'd be feeding them, she'd be playing mahjong with them, she'd just be sitting around talking to them. So she had a... it was a busy place at her house. So it gave us, we didn't have to deal with membership, because she dealt with the membership. And she had the best memory; she knew the telephone numbers of all... at least twenty of the board members, she knew it. That's how bright she was or how good her memory was. And people were scared of her. [Laughs]

PW: Why?

HS: Because she was a tough lady. [Laughs] And because I had the kids, I didn't have to deal with her too much.

PW: Well, describe to me more, like what would her other... besides the social part of it, were there other jobs that she was responsible for, being the wife of the head minister?

HS: Well, I think being the wife of the head minister, I think one of the jobs that we all did -- at least in those days, I think now other people do it. We had to arrange the flowers for the altar. We would do that for Sunday services, and then we would also do it when there were services; for memorial services for people because they would have flowers sent to the temple, and then we would have to arrange it. In this day and age, sometimes the florist would actually have it so that it's already arranged and you could just put it (eight into) those vases (...). In those days, we had to actually work on the arranging ourselves. And one of the things was that unless you had memorial services, the flowers, when they're just sitting in water, it starts smelling. So sometimes it would be two weeks when we wouldn't have any flowers for anything. So we'd have to wash off and (whatever necessary) to get the flowers looking decent for Sunday services. So that was part of our job as okusan. And other than that, I hardly did anything. So Baachan was very, very helpful to have her be there, because then I didn't. All my attention could be (on) the kids. And even when the kids started going to school, I could volunteer and help in the classroom if the teacher could use help or wanted help in the classroom. I liked that because I was trained to be a teacher, so it worked well. I don't know whether you heard, but she got hit by a car and died that way.

PW: I did not know.

HS: Oh, yeah. Well, when we were there, she used to go, used to be called Stierlin Road, it's called Shoreline Boulevard right now. But you'd have to cross from the church to a little island, and then you'd have to cross again, because there would be cars going towards the freeway and cars coming from the freeway. But she used to do that practically every day, she used to get her hair done, she used to go grocery shopping and whatever. And one time she was crossing, and I guess she wasn't careful, didn't see the car, got hit by a car. Fortunately, LaVerne was home, and he heard some commotion out front. And our house was fairly close to the street. And so he went out when it happened, he saw his mother there. So at first he said he saw her shoe there. Isn't that awful? So he's the one that saw his mom. So they got emergency (services who) brought her to a hospital. I was teaching; I was in the classroom, so LaVerne picked me up and we went to the hospital. So she died in the hospital.

PW: What year was this?

HS: That was... not too long after we moved there. Yeah, we moved there in 1971. No, no. You know what? Actually, his father died first. (His) mother died in (1985).

PW: So his father actually...

HS: Father died earlier, yeah. He's the one that had a stroke, and he died in a hospital. LaVerne went to Mountain View to help him because he was slow in getting around, and he died in, just a year after LaVerne got there, so it would be... what year was it now? We moved in (1971) when Rina was young. So he died in '72, I think. I think Jiichan died in 1972.

PW: And because LaVerne was his assistant minister, did he become head minister?

HS: Yes, yes. He became the minister, right, yes.

PW: Wow, okay. So a lot happened in a pretty short time.

HS: Yes, it did. Yes, it did.

PW: And then after your mother-in-law passed, that must have been very hard for the community.

HS: Uh-huh, right. They were saying something like, LaVerne says that when Mom died -- I don't know about when his Dad died, but when Mom died there were sixty ministers that came to the service. Sixty ministers. I mean, you don't even have that many ministers anymore. They came from all over because whenever any minister (visited the temple), it would be an open house to them. So she was an incredible woman. More so than my father-in-law, who was very quiet (when) people would come to the house and she'd be talking to them, and Dad would be in his easy chair sleeping, just like LaVerne does. [Laughs]

PW: What were their names, actually? What were your parent-in-law's names?

HS: Oh, Sensho, Sensho. (All the boys) have "Sen," sen (in their name) means "a thousand." "Sensho" means "a thousand elephants," but that was the father's name, Reverend Sensho Sasaki." And her name was Kinuko, Kinuko.

PW: Okay. So did things drastically change for you once, now that she's not taking care of the congregation?

HS: Right, yes. Well, by then, (...) I don't think they expected very much of me because I didn't do very much of anything. And so I was teaching dharma school. And I was involved in things that our kids were involved in. So I didn't really do anything much more, yeah. I just followed the kids to their basketball games. And by then, the congregation had grown, "grown" meaning that the younger kids, younger aged people were getting, growing up same as me and my children. So there was not much expected of me as was, let's say, when Kinuko was alive, because she was just a special person. And she did her thing and everyone appreciated what she did, but it wasn't expected of me.

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