<Begin Segment 26>

DG: Okay, so then after he left then, did you know, start getting ready for evacuation yourself?

FN: Well, we all, we all had to.

DG: Right. And so with the little kids, what kinds of things did you think about that you had to take and...

FN: Well we, we're all, we all just allowed one big duffel bag. That was about all we could take is, is your clothing.

DG: And so without your husband, you said that.

FN: Yeah. Well Hiram (Akita), Hiram and Helen came.

DG: So Helen's your sister, your younger sister.

FN: Yeah.

DG: And she had lived with you for a while to finish high school.

FN: Yeah, she had lived with me for a year or so and graduated from Franklin High School in Seattle. So.

DG: Well so did they come and stay at your house?

FN: They stayed with us until we had to, to leave.

DG: Okay, and then you said Hiram kind of helped with the --

FN: Yes, he...

DG: -- Arranging the greenhouse. What did he do?

FN: Well, well we had to make arrangements what we gonna do with the, with all the... They kept telling, "Don't, don't quit growing, grow things..." They just encouraged you to keep growing. So we had geraniums and things for spring. It was, we left in May I think it was. So it was things that we had to grow.

DG: Well so it was a busy season that you still had to.

FN: Yeah it was a busy season. But of course on the growing part of it.

DG: Well so who was making all the decision at that time? Did you have to? Since your husband was gone...

FN: Yeah.

DG: Did you have to decide what -- ?

FN: Well and then, fortunately for us. We, we had a very good friend that, he, he used to be the keeper of the grounds of the Sick, when Sick Stadium when the Seattle Rainiers were out on the Sick Stadium and he, he sold his home and moved into our home so then really I had no worry on that part of it. But when people, the other people that didn't have place to go, they wanted to bring their stuff and bring it to my place, well that was, I know one of my, I think my uncle, they brought some things. But when we came back they were gone. He had stored them in the garage. But then we had to get rid of our car and things like that.

DG: So...

FN: We kept our truck. We, we kept the truck. So the people that stayed there were able to use the truck. And, and he was very, very good, good. He, we grew a lot of, we used to grow a lot of mums out in the field and he kept those kinds of things for us. Stored them in the greenhouse in the winter when it's cold and he kept, so he kept quite a few things going for us in that way.

<End Segment 26> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.