古稀日記 6月3日 「Thinking of you.」

50年来の友だちからメールがきました。最後に会ったのは2007年3月でした。14年の間に
二人とも色々なことがありました。私は親を見送りました。彼女は夫を見送りました。二人
とも孫ができました。コロナ禍のはじめの頃、メールで無事を確かめ合いましたが、それが
最後になり、メールしなくっちゃ、とずっと思っていました。でも、パンデミックの状況、
政治の状況、人種差別が浮き彫りになった社会の状況が日に日に変わるので、メールをしそ
びれていました。

“Thinking of you”
Setsuko,
How are you and your family doing? I think of you a lot with Japan being in the
news due to the olympics right around the corner.
The US Olympic track and field team competition is being held here in Eugene this
month. Itʼs pretty exciting. This is such a strange/exciting/scary time we are living
in with the pandemic, race struggles, rise of fascism, etc. I hope you are doing well!
My family has all gotten vaccinated n doing well.
Much love,

“Thinking of you, too”
Hi, girlfriend!
SO good to hear from you. Iʼve thought of emailing you so often but the things
have been changing rapidly and I didnʼt know where to start. Hiroshi and I are
getting our first shot of vaccine next week. Vaccine rollout in Japan is very slow.
70% of population are against having the Olympic Games but the government is

determined to host the games. We have three grandchildren now. All boys. The
little one arrived last October. We managed to go to Tokyo to see the baby but
after that we couldnʼt travel across prefecture borders under the restrictions of
national emergency.
Lots of hugs,

一旦近況を交換したので、これからは、少しずつ以前のように連絡を取り合おうと思いま
す。