| Everything seemed to come easy for my mother | | | | We moved back to the states when I was ten and |
| while I was growing up. She was known for her | | | | mom continued to amaze dad, me, my three other |
| gourmet cooking; especially her Japanese cooking. | | | | siblings along with the rest of the world with all her |
| Dad was in the Army and being a Japanese | | | | super abilities, gifts, and talents for many more years. |
| interpreter, had a couple tours stationed in Japan. | | | | In the year 2000 my father passed away. My |
| While in Japan, Mom was always busy taking | | | | mother and father loved each other very much and |
| Japanese cooking classes, flower arranging classes, | | | | the shock of losing dad caused mother to have a |
| silk painting classes, or wandering the streets in Tokyo | | | | series of small strokes that brought on a type of |
| for fabric to design suits for her and my father. Yes, | | | | dementia that has Alzheimer's like symptoms. We |
| she was a seamstress and a tailor too. Everyone | | | | watched her slowly lose each one of her abilities and |
| was in awe of mom. | | | | gifts and then her mind. Her sewing skills went first, |
| If I was lucky, I would be able to talk her into taking me | | | | then her art and cooking. As her skills disappeared I |
| with her to one of these classes. She usually left me | | | | started becoming more involved in cooking and in art. |
| with the maid, Matsukawa San, who loved me like her | | | | She and I would spend the day together trying out |
| own. In 1958 I was only about seven years old when | | | | new recipes; she would give me advice and I would do |
| she took me to her flower arranging class in Tokyo. I | | | | the labor. I even started a full time art business so |
| was dressed in my red cotton shorts and striped shirt, | | | | mom could watch me work in the studio and be |
| with blond braids going in two different directions (you | | | | around creative things. I would have her sort items, |
| see I was quite a tomboy), sitting next to this beautiful | | | | like buttons and untangle trim, to help her feel |
| red headed woman in a tight gray pencil skirt, with a | | | | involved. The last year and a half she was alive she |
| form fiting sweater cinched in at the waist with a | | | | wasn't able to do anything. Her mind was no longer |
| gold leather belt, gold cuffed bracelet, red lipstick and | | | | hers. She died February 2010. |
| high heeled sandals. The Japanese ladies and men | | | | It was so hard to watch our mother disappear…and I |
| thought mom was a movie star. | | | | would wonder where she, the mother I knew, went. |
| She was beautiful. Her skin was porcelain white with | | | | But as the months have gone by and after much |
| freckles. Her eyes were a beautiful hazel, her hair a | | | | thought, I know where she went. She is in us; her |
| deep auburn red and styled in the latest style. She | | | | family she left behind. She has passed on her flower |
| was 5' 4' and weighed 115 lbs. with a 23" waist. Her | | | | arranging and art skills to me and my son, her cooking |
| back was always straight and her legs were shapely | | | | and sewing skills to my sister in law, sweetness and |
| as she walked with one foot directly in front of | | | | sensitivity to my brother and her love of storytelling to |
| another (she always told my sister and me this was | | | | my sister. Thank you mom. You will always be with |
| the way ladies walked). | | | | us. |