Their time with the Jefferys was not long. My dad got permission to leave camp and followed my mother to Chicago, where they were married in June 1943. I was born the following year. My dad never again worked as a butcher or in a market. However, he always remembered Orvil and Donna Jeffery, and never forgot the respect and kindness shown to him.
My dad passed away in 1998. In 2005, with my husband and daughter, I attended a Topaz Pilgrimage for the first time and visited the old Quality Market building, which had become a furniture store. I spoke to the owner and found out that he was Glen Jeffery, Orvil and Donna’s son! The market was still in the family but had moved to the other end of town. Glen and his son, who worked in the store with him, were very warm and welcoming. Glen remembered Dad and Uncle Johnny; he was just a little guy during the War, probably about three years old, but he remembered the fun he had playing with the “boys,” and how on one occasion, his tricycle was broken due to such “fun!”
Glen said that, at his mother’s behest, he had gone to almost every Topaz Pilgrimage to ask about the Hoshiyama brothers, but no one seemed to know about Dad; and Dad never went to a Pilgrimage. Glen ran upstairs to get something for me. It was a letter his mother had written to Dad before she passed in which she asked after the welfare of the “nice Japanese boys.”
Note: The Topaz Museum has on display a picture of the Quality Market and a panel which tells the story of the men from Topaz who worked for the Jefferys.
About the contributor: Gail Hoshiyama Nanbu was born in Chicago, IL in 1944, where her parents, Willie and Fumiko Hoshiyama, were married after an early exit from Topaz. The family returned to San Francisco in 1949, but Gail has lived in Walnut Creek, CA for many years. She and her husband, Gerry Nanbu, love to travel, especially to Japan. Gail enjoys Ikebana and making Kimekomi dolls while still helping clients with their tax issues as an enrolled agent.
Copyright 2019 Gail Hoshiyama Nanbu. All rights reserved.