<Begin Segment 3>

NI: How about your mother?

BH: My mother was around twenty-three when she came, got married and came to Canada.

NI: Your mother's name?

BH: Etsu. And my mother, when she first met my father, she was working as a midwife. She was a midwife.

NI: In Ehime?

BH: No, in Osaka, yeah. And when she came over, there was quite a few Japanese families that began settling here. When they started calling over their wives and got married, they have kids, she was in pretty good demand there, especially around the neighborhood where we lived. She went and delivered 'em, or if she can't be in two places at once, why, instructed them how to deliver the baby or so forth. But nevertheless, she looked after the needs of the thing there. Oh, most of the people that... oh, if they were living, if they were about eighty-nine or ninety or younger, younger to maybe seventy-five, I'm pretty sure she must have delivered most of the babies.

NI: This is in Mission?

BH: Yeah, in Mission, yes.

NI: Did your mother come over to Canada as a "picture bride"?

BH: No, no, no. It's not a picture bride at all. They met in Osaka, and through my, my father's sister, and so no, she wasn't a picture bride by any means.

NI: So they met in Osaka and, sorry, what year again were they married?

BH: I think 1912.

NI: 1912, they were married in Japan?

BH: In Japan.

NI: In Japan, and then your father came over.

BH: That's right, that's right.

NI: Settled, and...

BH: Well, my father, after married, my father came back earlier and well, he had to fix the house up so that she can join him there. And then when she, when she did come over, she already had the baby in her womb.

NI: And which of your brothers was this?

BH: The eldest one, Eiichi John, yeah, Eiichi John.

NI: And they settled on the farm?

BH: Uh-huh.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2005 Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre and Densho. All Rights Reserved.