My Mom

10 days after I returned back to Boston from Tokyo, my Mom passed away.
My dad, brother and uncle were by her side when she passed away.
I immediately made ticket reservations and this time flew back with my wife to attend her funeral.

Unlike the first trip I made to go she her when she was in critical condition, I felt relaxed, calm and almost felt like a dream. In my mind I knew she had died but my heart told me that she was still alive for some strange reason.

At the Boston airport I sketched a Harley while waiting for our plane - time flies by quick when you have a good subject to sketch.



This trip was a direct Boston to Tokyo flight in the new Japan Airlines plane called the 787 Dreamliner.
Beautiful plane with so many delightful attention to the details made the trip go a lot faster.



Upon arriving at my parents house in Tokyo, I met up with my father and also my brother who I hadn't seen in 10 years. He had come from Kyoto with this wife and 2 daughters.

My mom lied in inside a white coffin placed in the living room surrounded by lots of flowers and looked like she was just a sleep. The last time I saw her she always had the respirator mask on so it was nice to see her without it.

I sat by her side and sketched her.

She always hated being sketched by me, telling me that she always looked strange or looked mean in my sketches.
I think the 2 sketches I got of her this time was the best sketch I ever did of her and believe she would have agreed too.

I decided to keep these 2 sketches personal and not post online.

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The day of the funeral, I rode in the Funeral car (hearse) with my Mom to the church.
It was a quick 10 min ride but very smooth careful driving made it easy to sketch.



I arrived at the church 4 hours before the funeral.
I tried sketching while everything was being prepared but noticed I was in the way of people and gave up.
Across the street was a small cafe, where I was able to eat and sketch the church from my seat. This was perfect since it was too cold to be sketching outside.



The Himonya Church is a church I know very well.
I was baptized here, and used to come to mass every Sunday with my family when I used to visit Japan during the summers. After mass, they used to take me to 'Daiei', a near by department store and used to love playing the video games on the top floor.
I thought of all the good childhood memories while I sketched and had a nice lunch.

Friends and family slowly started to show up to my Mom's day 1 of the funeral.


Day 2 of the funeral:

Early morning, I came to the church a few hours earlier by myself.
I felt the urge to be alone with my Mom and to to get the last sketch of her.

Inside the church was cold with no lights but there was just enough sun light coming in through the stained glass windows.

I sat in a small stool in the center pathway and started to work on the sketch.
The sketch doesn't do justice to the amount of flowers my mother received.
She loved flowers, and all the people that attended knew that and brought her flowers.
My dad also bought lots of her favorite orchid's which pretty much filled the whole church stadium floor!
He said it was the most amount of flowers he ever bought for her and wished he could have bought her while she was still alive.....



The 2nd day of the funeral went very well with lots of people attending as well.
We headed to the crematory and then afterwards had a small family/ close friends get together at a restaurant to talk about a lot of memories of her.

May she rest in peace.

10 days with my Mom in Japan

It seems situations like this comes when least expected: Late Friday night in January, my father contacted me saying that my mom caught a type of pneumonia and was rushed to the hospital and was in critical condition. This was the first time my mom was taken into a hospital for emergency reasons.

I found the quickest plane flying from Boston to Tokyo and headed back for 10 days.

So much was going through my mind these couple of days and the most natural way to stay calm for me was to sketch. Here's an early morning sketch waiting for my Plane at Boston airport.




2 connecting flights, 4 trains and 24 hours later, I was at my mothers hospital in Tokyo.

She was conscious and recognized me right away.
I held her hands and she gripped my hands back.
She could not talk though since a large volume of air was being circulated into her lungs since she could no longer breath on her own.
She wore a respirator mask that I recognized right away - It was a mask I designed at a company I used to work before. I also noticed that the size selected for her was too large for her and easily slid down her face. I later asked for a smaller mask which the doctors were able to get from a separate hospital which fit her better.






My dad had been staying at the hospital with my mom sleeping on the floor.
I joined him since there was space for another small camping type bed.
Each day he typed my mom's vital status into his ipad and emailed it out to my uncle who is a doctor, and my brother who lived 3 hours away in Kyoto.
 


Each evening, my uncle (my mothers younger brother) came to visit for a few hours.
My mother could not talk but was able to nod and also write a little bit on a piece of paper to communicate.
Watching my uncle was impressive: he always smiled, massaged my mother and only talked about things that were positive.




My mom liked to talk.
Growing up, my mom did 90% of the talking in my household of my dad, my brother and I.
It felt very strange that she could not say a word.




Each morning at the hospital, I went to the restaurant in the basement to eat. They had a 'western' style breakfast and a 'Japanese' style breakfast. I tried both but preferred the 'western' style with the thick toast, scrambled eggs, and salad.


10 days with my mom flew by quickly.
Here's my last sketch done of her before heading back to the airport.

The green 'Daruma' doll in the sketch was something I found in her room.
Daruma's are used in Japan when making a wish - the first eye ball is inked in when making a wish and when the wish comes true, the 2nd eye ball is inked in.
This Daruma already had an eyeball so who ever brought it here must have already made a wish.

I truly wished the 2nd eye ball can be inked in.

I said good bye to my Mom and told her I'll be back in the summer to visit her.
Tears came down her eyes and tears came down mine too.

During the 10 days I was here, her vital status improved greatly - but for some reason I felt this was going to be the last time I got to meet her.

I'm not sure why I felt this way.


 


I had fried oysters from Hiroshima (famous for oysters) at the airport before heading back to the US.