MOM-&-DAD

My parents met at medical school in 1964. My father was a med student and my mother was studying to be a nurse. According to my mom, they were just good friends in the beginning, but ended up falling in love with each other after some time. They started dating secretly because they were afraid my mother’s family wouldn’t approve of their relationship. My maternal grandparents were Japanese immigrants. They wanted my mom to marry an “Issei” (first-generation immigrant) or at least a “Nisei” (second-generation) like her. She was their eldest child and no one in the family had ever dated a “Gaijin” (foreigner) before.
My mom took my dad to her parents’ house for the first time at Christmas in 1965. She introduced him as a university friend, and not as her boyfriend. My mother’s younger siblings instantly loved my father, as he was very outgoing and friendly. He brought presents to each member of the family, and he loved telling jokes and amusing them with his interesting stories. My grandparents were suspicious at first, but after getting to know my father a bit more, they started to like him. Before returning to university at the end of the holidays, my mom told them the truth. Three years later, they got married. Interestingly enough, my father became one of my grandparent’s favorite sons-in-law, and half of my uncles and aunts followed in my mother’s footsteps and married non-Japanese. My parents had three children and were happily married until my dad sadly passed away in 2003.

Sahlin Studio: Key to my heart and May 14 template