Toast to Life 17 (nursery teacher)

Ms. Sakuko Inoue was the director of the nursery school to which our two children attended. She is a cheerful, naive (in its good sense), and 100% non-selfish person. Even after she "graduated" from the childcare worker business several years ago, she has been flying here and there to give lectures and guidances to nurses all over the country. She says, "I'm a migratory fish." Thanks to Ms. Sakuko, our two children are being grown up as what they are now.  

In Meouro, we used to live right next to the nursery school. From the 6th floor of our place, a window of the nursery schools' was just over there, and the distance was just a few meters in-between. We would almost toss our kids to it, so as for them to pick up the kids.

Ms. Sakuko came to the school in around 2009 as her regular rotation. At that time, our daughter was a 5-year-old year or around, and son was still in childcare for 0-year-old. Even now, I still have some regret coming up to my mind that we the couple forced them running pitiful lives; Ms. Sakuko saved almost everything. When our daughter did a daily quarrel with her friend in the school and came home crying, Ms. Sakuko called me (only I was available at the time) to come to the school. She did not make her points, and rather, she listened to me talking. For our son, he got nephrotic syndrome before he became two years old, Ms. Sakuko realized that he had the kidney disease. We the couple had noticed his body being slightly swollen, but we were not able to realize it. A bit off the scene of his illness, I had a chance to chat with my general practitioner doctor, and he was quite astonished like, "your son's disease is really hard to name it as it is (nephrotic syndrome). She should be praised."

One of the things for Ms. Sakuko is her drawing. In around 2014 when we all made a trip back to Tokyo, and she gave one of such drawings. About 30cm each of a thick paper, two children's faces were on it, painted simply with black ink ("筆") along with the words, saying, "I want to be who I like the most ("誰よりも僕 (私) を好きと言える自分に")" (note: in Japan, particular nouns are used for child male and child female). This thick paper has been hung on a wall of the room for six years in Singapore. It should still be somewhere in a house in Tokyo.

Speaking of Ms. Sakuko, I remember the S family, the next door neighbor of the condominium. I will never forget the day when the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake struck on March 11, 2011. That afternoon, I was in my office room in Chiyoda-ku, where I used to work for about 11 years but three days before the earthquake I was dismissed from the position of the Tokyo office head. I didn't tell the clients at the time about my dismissal, and my boss in London was kind enough to allow me to use my office in Tokyo.  

It was when I was on the phone with a client in Osaka that a big shake hit only here in Tokyo, and not in Osaka where my phone counterpart was sitting. Excusing him, I hung up the phone, opened the office (not my room) door to keep it as it would be. Then, I got off the elevator to my private car parked in the basement of the building, got into the car and took the return trip. The city started already full of people who had difficulty returning home. I arrived home after 5pm and immediately went to the nursery school to pick up my two children. 

During the time, I kept calling my wife's workplace and cell phone, but she did not answer. There was no sign, too, that the S family couple (double-income), opposite of the corridor at the same floor, would return. It was at around 7pm the extra time of the nursery school, when it occurred to me that their children (two daughters), too, were in the same nursery, which was the next door neighbor. Rushing there, Ms. Sakuko welcomed me with her pale face, and gave her permission for me to bring back the two children. The two daughters came "back" to my home, joining other two of our kids.

Passing 10pm, the couple of the S family respectively walked home from work. It seems that the farthest workplace was that of S husband, and it took about four hours, as he said. Everyone's faces were pale in fear (and cold outside). Wife Koko also came back shortly after that, although my memory is being mixed up now, and I do not remember who was the first and the last among the three. 

The next day was Saturday, but Koko went to her office in Akasaka. Right after hen the nuclear power plant run by TEPCO literally exploded, she came back and we decided to run away to Osaka, where Koko's relatives were living. It was already 8 or 9pm. Driving on the highway, it was not until midnight when we finally arrived Nagoya, in the middle place for Osaka. Kok made a phone call to her friend's parents house near Nagoya, and asked them to let us stay for one night. 

While feeling responsible for our family and kids, I felt tarnished, too, occurring from my "escape", leaving behind many acquaintances in Tokyo. So, more than three years after the nuclear plants explosion, I, in June 2014, brought my daughter in the summer to see the site in Tohoku area where the plants were resided. S' husband was born from Higashi-matsushima, a part of Miyagi prefecture, and he accompanied us. Actually, I had asked him to guide us. 

His mother, living in the area, played our guide in town. At a point, we all saw from a car window a baseball ground net about 10 meters high along the coast of Higashi-matsushima. The green color was beautifully reflected in the blue of the sea and the sky. The mother told me, "there were a lot of bodies stuck on this net found in 2011." Her way of speaking was almost "it was nothing", and nonetheless, it struck me. I was, and still am, glad I was able to see the site of the earthquake, and let my daughter see the same one, although I am not sure if she remembers all. For me, therefore, the 2011 Earthquake always is tied up with my memory of Ms. Sakuko. 

Our exchange with Ms. Sakuko continued after that. Last month, October 2020, she came to the nearest station immediately after I was discharged from the hospital. Even though we only met in Tokyo a couple of times during our eight+ years in Singapore. But, I'm happier and happier to see her as time goes by.

I was wondering what to do in order to express her personality, but I think the best thing is to post her message as it is, though it is a part of her entire message in Line a message App. She is surprisingly pure white (hereinafter, line breaks remain the same).

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Rather, it was me who had a lot of ties and raised me.
Above all, what I am doing now is coming from all the children and parents I met.
Everything I am taught by the children, and each one I will give back to the childcare sites or parents who are raising those children.
I always wonder if I can give back what I received for the rest of my life? While believing that the time is when it is needed, I go round in Japan like a migratory fish every day.

Instead of doing something to parents, 
Show the whole thing to your beloved daughters (note: sons, too) as you are as a parent.
If there is something that I can learn from it, that's fine, and I try to think that's all.
Of course, I would like to appreciate various visions, but I am living in search of an infinitely simple way.

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(With the consent of Ms. Sakuko Inoue, I posted the message above with her real name. The photo on the blog top is from that of Halloween at an international school in Singapore on October 31, 2018. My daughter is in the banana costume on the left and I am on the right. To be continued.)