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BN: And then you retire, actually, fairly young.

JK: I did. I retired at fifty-five because by then, my older son was home, he was opening his, he was a dentist. And he was... we thought he was all set because he became an associate to a very experienced older dentist, and he thought he was going to learn a lot and then eventually be able to go out on his own. Unfortunately, shortly after he started there, the older dentist contracted cancer, very fast-moving, and in a few months he was gone. So there was my young son, brand new, and not... he had this overwhelming practice. And, of course, he couldn't speak Japanese either, so that half of the clients left. But he had the challenge of his staff who adored their former dentist, and they were leaving also. And so he said, "Mom, could you help me a little bit with the reception?" And his girlfriend's father had just retired and he got, between the two of us, we would do the reception work. And finally, he tried to hire a receptionist, and then he had no idea how to run a business. So it wasn't working out, so finally I told them, "Why don't you consider hiring your mother for a receptionist for a while until things settle down?" And he didn't want to do that. I don't blame him, I didn't want to do it either. But it came to the point where he said, "Mama, I think, okay, yeah." So I was there for four years, and that's why I had to retire. But then after he left and went back to school to become an endodontist, I became a school librarian at Royal (Elementary) School, yeah. They took me right back. [Laughs]

BN: But only for a couple more years.

JK: A couple more years. And then they were both coming back, and there was a baby. So I became babysitter.

BN: So you retired for good?

JK: For good.

BN: Or at least from the first half of your life.

JK: Yes. And the DOE did warn me. They said, "You know, you've retired. If you retire again, you're done." [Laughs] I said, "Okay."

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.