One of the best memories was the day you see highlighted above in my cover photo. My daughter, Margaret and her two sons joined my mom and me on one of my visits to Oakland in early 2009. My mom was a little nervous about meeting them but she agreed. I think by the end of the day we spent together she was glad they had come. On that day, there were four generations together. Im so glad Margaret made the effort to come that trip because it was the only time she got to meet her grandmother. That visit, we talked about mothers, daughters and sisters. I already knew that my mothers mother, Kimie Takai, died of TB in 1942, when my mom was seven years old. She said that her family didnt have enough money for nourishing food or medicine, and thats why her mother had died. She, too, knew what it felt like to miss her mother for almost all of her life. She told me that her aunt, her mothers sister Hatsue Takai, could not have children and was considering whether to adopt me; twelve years earlier, Hatsue had adopted my moms baby brother . Hatsue took so long to decide that by the time she made up her mind- to take me- I had been given away to Harold and Bettye Wood by the childrens home. It seems I would have been raised by a great-aunt even if I had stayed in Japan- by Hatsue or the adopted great aunt with whom I ended up, Ann Davis. We talked about the four women who were my mothers in Texas and Tennessee. You already know that I was living with Kaye and Harold Wood in Texas when my mother lived in El Paso, about seven hundred miles apart. At the same time that my mother lived in New Jersey, Kaye Wood (American mother number two) was also living in Deal, New Jersey with her husband Harold and their two sons, Kenneth and Lloyd. When my mother moved to California, Betty Jean Wood (American mother number one) was living there. I also lived in California for six years without knowing that my mom was about five hundred miles north in the same state. We were getting closer and didnt know it! Paths just continued to cross until they intersected. My mom seemed to enjoy our visits together. She had started asking my advice on small matters when we talked weekly. When I visited she let me drive her to the grocery, to the hardware store, to pick up things she needed. The ordinary felt extraordinary because I was doing it with my mother. The pictures below are: Margaret, Dacian and Xavis visit to San Francisco- it was chilly by soCal and Hawaii standards! Pictures of my American mothers: Bettye Jean Morris Wood with me in Tokyo; I only have a picture of Bettye because my mother saved it for fifty years. Kaye Lloyd Wood and I when I visited her in 2010 in New Jersey; that visit only possible because of my friend Peter, who drove me from Princeton to Deal after a conference. We had a wonderful visit and she confirmed all of the shenanigans that went on as I was being shuttled around to eventually end up with the Davises. Kaye would pass in 2011. The next picture shows my mother (and grandmother!) Lessie Wood, in the blue dress with red trim. Beside her is her sister, my great-aunt and guardian for most of my childhood, Ann Davis, in the blue dress with white trim. The last picture is my mother daughter collection on top of one of my filing cabinets at work, facing my desk. The picture in the front is one of me, my moms mom Kimie, and my mom in kimono. I put this together as a gift for Mothers Day. She loved it. These are the women who shaped my life.
Posted on: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 05:35:15 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015