A 70-Year Marriage and Lifetime of Memories
I am Chinese; I was the oldest of six sisters and had nine siblings overall! I was born and raised in St. Louis. My grandfather worked on the transcontinental railroad and brought his wife and child into the country. I have traveled with my husband, an ‘Iolani alum, all over the world because he was in the Army Core of Engineers. I just followed him with the Core of Engineers all over the world, being put in all these different American air fields. I always thank the good Lord for taking care of me.
When I was 20 years old, my parents picked someone for me, and I refused. When we went to a restaurant, my arranged husband tipped big to make an impression on me…When I went home, my mother asked me “Is everything ready?” I said no; my mother wasn’t very happy. My parents chose my husband for me, and I refused. My brothers kept bringing this man, my future husband, home when he was going to school in Georgia. I was 20 when I met him. After we fell in love and got married, we never came back to Hawai’i.
I lived in Baghdad because missiles were stationed there for proximity to the USSR. I also lived in Morocco, literally sitting on the A-bomb (atomic bomb). I was the only woman survivor from that camp in Morocco, and I have been tested for cancer many times due to the radiation. I was operated on many times by doctors throughout my life, and they have never found cancer. The doctors tell me that I am very healthy; I am expected to live to 100 years old, and my siblings are 96 and 98 years old.
It’s a small world. The reason I’m here now is because my husband had a stroke, and I thought he was going to die. When my husband was paralyzed, he was sent to a hospital is Las Vegas, and the doctors on the mainland never told me what was happening to him. So I brought him back here, his home, because I thought he was going to pass away. The doctors never told me the diagnosis. He returned home so that I could care for him during his last days, so that he could die where he was raised. It was just my thinking that this was where he was born, so he would be happy when he died. He survived that stroke, and I care for him now because he cannot be out on his own.
The two of us never lived here in the 70 years that we were married. We never even came here to visit Hawai’i before that stroke. My husband loves me and I love my husband. We had a good life. Living happily ever after is still possible; it may be from a fairy-tale, but it’s still possible. Big smiles whenever we see each other.
Back then, divorce was a scandal. They really mean what they say about human values. I’m just fortunate that I married the right man. When he sees me, his face just lights up. Not everyone lives happily together for 70 years…
