Makiko Itoh : Not a nameless cat.

As I've already mentioned online somewhere, my father died in late November. His memorial service will be held in February, at the church he attended. I wrote up a short biography for the pastors at the church to refer to in their eulogy (or whatever it is called that is read out at a memorial service) and I thought I'd post it here too, as a sort of closure. It is admittedly the 'good' version of my father's life, and leaves out a lot, but it is what I think is most fitting.

Because I have a certain profile as a Japanese person who happens to write a lot in English about things Japanese, I periodically get asked to support this or that cause or organization related to Japan. Here's why I may or may not give your group a shout-out or other visible support.

I am not well. There's no getting around it.

Just a personal tribute.

Radiation and me, and you.

I do not currently own a television set - or rather, I own a physical TV, but we still have to get it hooked up. This means that I can easily avoid the 24 hour news channels and such, which today I'm sure are being flooded with news of the 10th anniversary of 9/11. (It's also the 6 month anniversary of the March 11 earthquake in Japan.)

Still, it's hard to avoid all mention of 9/11 as long as I'm hanging out online, which is mostly what I have the energy for at the moment. And the phrase I keep hearing again and again is "Never forget". I'd like to know, what exactly are we not supposed to forget?

I've been debating with myself for a while whether I should make this public knowledge, but I've decided to go ahead...because you might see something is up anyway. It's hard to write about food, when food is such a part of your health and body. Besides...it's not like a dirty secret. It's part of what I am, in early September 2011.