MAY H. KIKUCHI April 16, 1915 - Feb. 1, 2011

My mother, May H. Kikuchi aka Grandma May, passed away on Feb. 1. She was 2.5 month short of 96 years old. She lived through a rather turbulent life before, during and after the World War II in Japan. She also lost her father and husband at relatively young age. However, in the end she died in her sleep very peacefully.

She was different from a typical Japanese woman of her age because she was a college graduate and career woman until her retirement. She worked as Japanese English interpretor for the US Armed forces in the post war Japan.

She loved beautiful jewelries, nice clothes, and good food. Her hobby was playing golf. Also for some reason she loved moving around from one place to another even though moving was expensive. She loved spending money and she was quite generous to us daughters.

May was quite a remarkable lady. I miss having lunch with her at restaurants.