Today was probably one of the most difficult days as we said good bye to our friend and mama-san Yoza. We met Yoza in March 2004. I worked at a school out in town and my Japanese assistant knew Yoza. She'd mentioned to me that Yoza was looking for a family to clean for. She had a full time job and cleaned on her days off. She only wanted one family as her job kept her busy. I met with Yoza and brought her to our house so she could check out our apartment and give us a price. She was going to start about a week later. Cesario was very unhappy with my decision to let a stranger into our home while we went to work. Yoza dusted, mopped, cleaned the bathrooms and ironed for us. She also offered to do our laundry and cook but these things weren't necessary. I am sort of weird about my laundry. Needless to say Cesario's unhappiness did not last long!! The first time he put on his shorts all nicely ironed with a crease, he was hooked. She came to our house up until June 2006 and then we departed Okinawa.
We returned to Okinawa in 2008 and decided we would go look for her to say hello and see if she was still cleaning. The first time we went to Foster we did not find her. We happened to be there a few weeks later and thought we'd pop in again to see if we could track her down. We were successful!! I still remember the priceless look on her face when she saw us. We were able to communicate with her and asked if she was interested in coming back to clean for us. She started with us in August 2008 and just finished up with us today.
Yoza had become a huge part of our family. Cesario, the girls and I all considered her family. Anytime we've gone somewhere we always make sure we bring her something back. We will miss her dearly but the memories of her smiling face will be forever in our hearts. Arigato Yoza-san!!!!
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