Sean Hidalgo is the Classes Manager for ACC Senior Services. He runs the studio that makes all of ACC’s livestreaming classes and workshops possible. Since the start of the pandemic, he’s produced thousands of online sessions, helping those isolated at home stay connected.
Health care is something talked about all the time, usually in the context of disease, illness, or injury. Social care refers to addressing people’s non-medical needs that have consequences on health. It may seem like a lower priority for many people because, if you are in pain, you’re going to see a doctor about it.
As I reflect on this past year as the Acting ACC President and CEO for ACC Senior Services and Meals on Wheels (MoW) by ACC, I want to thank all the managers and staff for their unwavering support.
The ACC Mah Jong Club meetings Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at ACC. The seven tables fill up quickly. The ladies and a few men settle down in groups of four. Once the “MJ” tiles are “washed,” the game is on! The clicking of tiles is mixed in with laughter and whispers about who makes the best dim sum pastry and the old neighborhood gossip that happened 50 years ago!
As someone whose career is deeply rooted in the well-being and healthcare of individuals, my journey into the world of senior care began at ACC Bingo, which meets every Friday. More than a year ago, I began as a player and then as an emcee and caller. It was an unexpected yet incredibly rewarding detour in my career as a dental practice consultant.
Little did I know that this volunteer activity would be fun and interesting for seniors, their caregivers, and the more than 20 volunteers who take turns running the sessions. It opened a doorway to something much more profound – a path filled with heartwarming encounters, remarkable stories, and a unique perspective on social care and its impact on the health and well-being of seniors.
Adventures Beyond Bingo
Earlier this year, ACC asked me to help organize and lead field trips as part of its Lifelong Learning and Wellness program. These have been nothing short of many grand adventures. Our field trips have become a beacon of joy for the attendees, offering them a chance to explore, connect, and rediscover the vibrant spirit of life. I’ve had the pleasure of working with Jeri Shikuma, Dani Lee, Ted Fong, and Dannis Voong on planning these trips.
One field trip that stands out is the trip to the city of Locke to pick pears. Our friend and tour guide, Alfred Yee, was a delight to watch, as he interacted with our 30 pear picking participants. Clarence Chu, the owner of the pear farm, generously allowed us to pick as many pears as we wanted. The orchard was beautiful and had not been picked yet. Every single tree was chock full of pears!
After pear picking, Alfred led us to the front of the Locke Museum and delivered a talk on the history of this Delta town. His childlike curiosity and unbridled enthusiasm were a vivid reminder that age is but a number and the thirst for knowledge knows no bounds. We enjoyed a delightful day, and our minds were stimulated with every pick and conversation.
Another field trip was to the Sacramento Executive Airport, where attendees were treated to a behind-the-scenes look at Sacramento’s aviation history. Airport Manager Larry Fleshman and Ann LeBlanc, our knowledgeable guides, made the experience truly unforgettable. We also toured the hangar of Capitol Helicopters and visited a company that installs state-of-the-art instruments in airplanes. There were airplanes everywhere. Then we ate lunch at Aviator’s Restaurant!
In September, a group of 22 took ACC Rides to visit the picturesque McKinley Rose Garden Park. As we strolled through the garden, I couldn’t help but notice the gleam in everyone’s eyes, the smiles that grew wider with every passing bloom, and the laughter that echoed through the fragrant air. It was a testament to the simple yet profound power of nature to uplift the soul. Then we enjoyed a picnic lunch.
Addressing the Ripple Effects of Isolation on Health
I’ve come to learn that connecting social care with health care is big at ACC Senior Services. Loneliness, especially during the pandemic, is a silent predator that can lead to a cascade of health issues. But by providing seniors with opportunities to engage, socialize, and stay mentally and physically active, we can contribute to a significant reduction in preventable health issues, hospitalizations, and emergency room visits. Ultimately, this leads to healthier, happier, and more resilient seniors who can enjoy a higher quality of life.
My participation in ACC bingo and field trips is a vivid reminder that health care isn’t just about treating diseases, it’s also about nourishing the spirit.
On the brisk morning of Saturday, September 16th, 2023, over 700 walkers gathered in the parking lot of ACC Senior Services – ready to take off on their choice of a 1 mile- 2 mile- 3 mile route around the Pocket Canal Parkway.
Glen Shimazu grew up on a Delta farm. At age 102, he still loves tending to the vegetable gardens and fruit trees surrounding his home in Sacramento.
Born March 1921 in Sacramento to Japanese immigrant parents, he had two brothers and one sister. An older sister remained in Japan when his parents relocated to California. Glen’s father was the foreman of a pear orchard in Courtland. “It was hard work, picking and packing the fruit by hand. I learned to drive tractors when I was very young,” recalls Glen. Like other Japanese children in the Delta, he attended Bates Oriental School and Holland Japanese School.
Glen was a senior at Courtland High School when his family left for the Gila River internment camp in Arizona. In 1943, everyone in camp was asked to complete a loyalty questionnaire. Glen joined others in responding “no” to certain questions. By doing so, he was identified as being disloyal, aka a “No-No Boy.” His entire family was subsequently transferred to Tule Lake internment camp.
In November 1945, Glen and his father were released from Tule Lake. They returned to Sacramento and stayed in a hostel at Parkview Presbyterian Church. Around 1946, they had saved enough money to rent a house in Hood at a pear orchard. The rest of the family was able to leave Tule Lake internment camp and return to the house in Hood.
The family pooled their resources to purchase seven acres of land in South Sacramento for the purpose of farming. They harvested tomatoes, eggplant, daikon, and cucumbers and sold the crops to local stores. When the family stopped farming, they built homes on the land. Glen still lives in the home he built in 1960.
In the early 1950s, Glen figured he’d better settle down. He was working at McClellan Air Force Base. A mutual friend introduced him to Mary Seno. Raised in Florin, she was working at the Sacramento Army Depot. They married in 1955 and had three children, Yvonne, Dwayne, and Alene. They had 57 years together before Mary passed in 2012.
The couple found time to travel around the world, collecting rocks from every city they visited. Glen proudly showed me their unique rock collection; each rock is engraved with the site and date the couple were there.
What’s his secret to living so long? Glen says maybe it’s because he’s nice to everyone he meets. And he’s done a lot of volunteer work. He was one of the original volunteers with the Meals on Wheels program when ACC took over operations. He used to take a bus to play the slot machines in Reno and Tahoe, but these days, family members drive him to Red Hawk and Sky River casinos. Frequent visits from his children and five grandchildren keep him going.
Yvonne says her dad is a farmer at heart, spending long hours tending his garden and fruit trees. I can vouch for his green thumb – the Chinese long beans he gave me were delicious.
Much has been written about Mickey Yamadera’s many years as a community activist and volunteer with ACC. She recently published Quest for Normalcy, chronicling her early years.
Miyoko Hayashi was born in September 1921 in Gardena, California. She was the third child of five. Her parents immigrated from Japan to farm in southern California. Her father, Jinzo Hayashi, arrived in 1910; her mother, Chito, in 1915.
When Mickey was a young child, both her mother and an infant brother succumbed to pneumonia. Jinzo tried growing vegetables as an independent farmer. His children harvested the crops. Unbeknownst to her, Jinzo “rented” out Mickey to the neighboring Tanaka family, so she could help with their family farm.
Jinzo struggled to feed his children. One day, he tried to steal a neighbor’s chicken and was shot in the arm. Medical complications resulted in him losing his right arm. Unable to work, he then lost his farm. Times were hard; each child was then placed with a different family. Mickey’s last home was with Dr. Mabelle Moore and her husband, Dr. Holbrook Rawson, in Culver City. She was treated very well by the family. Mickey and Aunt Mabe became fast friends.
Mickey graduated from Alexander Hamilton High School in 1940. She recalls going with her sister that summer to a Baptist Camp in Idyllwild Pines. They made new friends there, especially with Japanese boys!
When Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941, Mickey was on the move again. Her first stop was at the Santa Anita Racetrack Assembly Center, and then to Amache Internment Camp in Colorado. She and her siblings stayed in Block 11G. She worked first as a hospital aide, and next as the Girls’ Recreation Director. When she wasn’t working, she wrote letters to the troops, up to nine letters a day.
In 1943, Mickey left Amache to work as a nurse’s aide in Ann Arbor. This is where she met her future husband, George Yamadera. He was an orderly in surgical services. From Oakland, George’s family was interned at Tule Lake. He stayed at Tule Lake until 1944, when he volunteered for the military. He served with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and did his tour of duty in France and Italy.
In March 1944, Mickey moved to New York City. She worked in a factory making military hats and did other odd jobs to support herself and the war effort. During this time, Mickey and George were exchanging letters. His letters often mentioned getting married. Mickey finally said “yes,” three days before George was shipped overseas. Coincidentally, George and Mickey’s brother, Kaz, were on the same transport ship headed for Europe.
Mickey and George were married in 1945. Higher education was always important to Mickey; when the war was over, she supported the family while George studied pharmacy at the University of Utah. He graduated in 1957 when their two children, Karen and Richard, were young. He had a long 27-year career as a pharmacist. He and Mickey were married for 65 years before he passed away in 2010.
Mickey characterizes her life as one of perseverance, optimism and grit. Her children, three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren are all very proud of Mickey and all she has accomplished.
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Related article: Mickey Yamadera, Volunteer’s Life at ACC by Ted Fong
Born on May 15, 1920, Dorothy Koga is 103 years young! Dorothy was born in Sacramento with the help of a Japanese midwife who delivered many babies to Japanese parents. Dorothy’s parents were farmworkers who followed and harvested the crops in the Sacramento region. Dorothy remembers her parents placing her near them in a box so that she would not wander off while her parents worked in the fields. Dorothy said that when her parents finished a row of crops, they would move the box over, with Dorothy in it. Dorothy said the box had blankets inside, which made the box comfy.
Dorothy’s parents then moved to Los Angeles, where they lived in a boarding house. Her mother did housecleaning at the boarding house. Eventually, they were given the opportunity to run the produce section at the Piggly Wiggly Market. Her mother used to tell Dorothy that they sold the best produce in Los Angeles. Dorothy went to school in Los Angeles, where she graduated from Manual Arts High School and attended Woodbury Business College before World War II broke out.
During the war, Dorothy’s family was interned at the Amache Internment Camp in Colorado. This is where she met her husband Dix Koga, and they were married there. After Camp, they moved to Walnut Grove, where Dix’s family was from. Before the war, the Koga family had a barbershop, pool hall, and made tofu. After returning to Walnut Grove, Dix cut hair at the barbershop. Dorothy remembers all the shops in Walnut Grove, including the Inaba Grocery Store, Hayashi Market, Oda’s Meat Market, Lim Kee Department Store, and, of course, the Miyazaki candy store.
Dorothy excitedly recalls meeting the singer Bobby Darin when she worked at the Walnut Grove courthouse. During the summers in the Delta, many boat owners would cruise their boats along the Sacramento River and dock in Walnut Grove or in the surrounding sloughs. One summer day, Bobby Darin docked at Walnut Grove, went to the County Courthouse, and asked Judge James Gualco to marry him and Andrea Joy Yeager (his second wife). Judge Gualco told Bobby Darin that he needed a few more documents before he could marry them. Bobby Darin returned in his boat the next day to get married, but they needed a witness. Dorothy, being the Court Clerk, became the witness to the marriage of Bobby Darin (using his real name Walden Robert Cassotto) and Andrea Yeager on June 25, 1973.
Dorothy started working for the county on September 26, 1956 and worked 20 years for the County Courts. She attended many meetings and talked and listened to people with all kinds of stories and problems–which made the job very interesting, rewarding, and educational. Dorothy received a 20-year service pin from Judge Gualco.
Dorothy has three wonderful daughters, Janice, Carolyn, and Sharon, six grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren. Dorothy lives at ACC Greenhaven Terrace Assisted Living, where she hangs out with her friends, playing cards, knitting, crocheting, taking walks, and partaking in the many activities offered.
Life for Kiyo Sato began May 8, 1923. Delivered by a Japanese-American midwife on the Sato farm in Mather Field, she was the first of three girls and six boys of John Shinji and Mary Tomomi Sato. Life on the 20-acre farm was idyllic; their many crops were in much demand. The King and Queen of England requested crates of the Sato’s raspberries as the royals traveled through Canada; the White House ordered 50 pounds of their walnuts.
In the one-room elementary school, Edward Kelley School, Kiyo and 51 other students were taught by Miss Mary Aline Cox, who attended lovingly to them. Kiyo remembers singing operas and nature walks.
In May 1942, Kiyo, her parents and seven siblings were interned at the Pinedale Assembly Center in Fresno and then the Poston Internment Camp in Arizona. Her brother Steve was in the US Army. Kiyo, age 19, taught the young ones. Internees worked to make the children’s lives as good as possible–everything was “for the sake of the children.” She remembers the outhouse with the wood board with 10 holes, five on each side. Using this was agony for a teen longing for privacy at such times.
Kiyo wanted to be a nurse. Rejected for her “background” by nursing schools, she attended Columbia University on a scholarship. She later admonished the nursing schools, and they accepted her. Congresswoman Frances Payne Bolton established the Cadet Nurse Corps, which Kiyo attended with free tuition. She obtained her nursing degree there.
A nurse in the Korean War, she next worked for the County of Sacramento, overseeing the health of mothers and children. She made two lifelong friends, Evelyn Loomis and Marie Jenkins. Traveling with Evelyn for 14 months, they worked their way through 13 countries.
She says her parents were her role models, treating everyone with respect. Kiyo married and divorced. During one marriage, Kiyo and her husband adopted four children: Cia, Jon, Paul and Tanya. Raising children alone was a challenge but they are her life’s great joy, and she’s proud of all of them and her five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Her hobbies include hula dancing, tai chi, and writing. Her first book, Dandelion Through The Crack, won major awards. She’s writing a second. She is active in the Nisei VFW speakers’ group, talking about the internment each year to approximately fifty groups, especially children, to help ensure this travesty of justice never happens again.
