3/26/2006
To the Mano Families,
Our deepest condolences to your loss of your mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and maybe another generation? Michi has been so dear and close to to us, including all our in-laws that had the pleasure of meeting her. She was so easy to please that it was an honor to have come to our our place. It's too bad that you all lived at least a thousand miles away as we would definitely have visited you more often.
Nibs has often mentioned that he spent six summer vacations working at Mr. Mano's fruit and vegetable stand in the Sunset Villa Market in Hollywood. He thoroughly enjoyed himself because of the hospitality extended to him from Michi and the beautiful house that they owned near Olympic Boulevard in Los Angeles where Ken, Irene, and maybe, Ron were born. At first, I was reluctant to speak to Mr. Mano because he had such a stern face but later found out that he had a heart of gold behind his very pleasant smile. Except for the first place you had to live in after the war started and you moved to Utah, somewhere near Layton, we have visited you wherever you lived, including Coalville, Woodscross, and several places in Murray. Michi was definitely Pop's favorite as he wanted to go wherever she went. He had a stroke in Woodscross but Michi could not take care of him because of Mr Mano's health and the children she had at home ,so sister Mary Takemori from Midvale said she would take over but even that was too much for a single person to tend to a person who needed 24 hrs care, suffering from Amyotrophic lateralsclerosis (Lou Gehrig"s disease), so we in Kansas decided to pick him up with our station wagon and travel trailer. We picked him up at Mary's place and took off for home heading towards the Wyoming border when we saw a car with a lot of familiar faces and it turned out to be Dick, Freddy Takemori and the other children relatives. They expected to catch up to us within a few miles since we were towing a trailer but they didn't catch up to us until we had just entered Wyoming. There happened to be a grocery store just across the street from where we stopped so we bought some luncheon meat and drinks and had a grand party right there!!
As Nibs was stationed at the Army hospital in Fort Riley, Kansas, the medical supply officer let him use anything we needed, including a hospital bed, a pulsating rubber mattress and all the linen we needed. That helped us tremendously as I don't think the unit"s washer and dryer would have been able to handle the exceptional loads that needed to be washed with Pop's incontinence .Needless to say, he was completely bedridden so Mary's mother, Mary and the kids were very good in taking care if him. He always asked which way it was to Utah and we told him that it was a long ways. He asked us so often that we finally had to tell him that it was a long and difficult distance and he finally gave up all thought of going "home".
As time went on, he seemed to be getting better and so we thought that the docter had the wrong diagnosis as we heard that A.L.S. was a steadily declining disease. Then one day he asked for a pencil and a piece of paper and started to try some writing. Before long, he had written a letter to Michi and she wrote back that she never expected ever to get a letter from Pop and she cried for days. We've always admired her dedication to her church and have dearly praised her for rearing such a fine family. Her missions to Japan are so exceptional that everyone we have talked to are amazed that she accomplished so much, especially that family tree that she amassed, going back as far as the 11the century. We always refer to the genealogy chart that she prepared for us at one of the family reunions that were held in Reno or Las Vegas.
Since we are no longer having the KYHM (Kawana. Yoshitomi, Handa, Morio) reunions, and it's been a long time since we held the last one, we think just a Mano family reunion just in itself would bring out a crowd almost as big as KYHM gatherings. To think that this big happy clan started with the simple weddinng of Mr Eisaku Mano and Michi Morio, my extraordinary sister. We so loved her so much, May she rest in peace. Amen.
With much love,
Nibs and Mary
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