News Item: Memoriam of Saito Estsko Shimai
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Follow-up to Mark Hanzel's Memoriam of Saito Estsko Shimai.
My wife and I just got back from attending the kokubetsuski of Saito Etsuko
Shimai in Japan. More than 150 people attended the viewing at the house.
The next day, the funeral was held at the Chiba/Inage Ward chapel. Br.
Saito and all three children spoke. I gave the opening prayer. Sister
Sakuma (now Kinoshita), who spoke at Saito shimai's baptism, also spoke at
the funeral. The day before the funeral, I had been going through some of
Saito shimai's stuff and came across a mission journal entry from Merrill
Choro,
dated 2 Dec. 1973. He sent it to Saito shimai several years ago. The
entry was the minutes from Saito shimai's baptismal meeting. Sister Sakuma
was listed as the chorister and speaker at the meeting. Since Sister
Sakuma was already scheduled to speak and lead the music at the funeral
service, I showed her the journal entry. She couldn't believe it. We both
then reflected on the beginnings of the old Chiba shibu and contemplated
closing this chapter together.
The Bishop closed the funeral meeting. He said he visited Saito Shimai
right after she died in
her hospital room. He said she only weighed about 65 lbs. She was very
weak when she
entered the hospital. He looked around and the only thing in the room was
her scriptures.
He then held up her scriptures and said, "as you can see they are very
large and heavy." He then said that even in her weakened condition, she
would not be separated from her scriptures. He then used that as a
metaphor for her life, that she was never separated from spiritual things,
especially in times of weakness, and that we should live to follow her
example.
At the beginning of this year, Saito shimai was attending the Saturday
evening session of Stake Conference. Elder Richard G. Scott noticed her
sitting in a wheel chair on the first row. After the meeting he and Elder
Evans (70ty) went down to speak to her. Late that night she got a call
from her stake president asking her to come in the morning, because Elder
Scott wanted to give her a blessing. Being with Elder Scott was a real
comfort to her. Recently, on her last day at church (9/2/2007), Elder
Bednar and Elder Evans were visiting. They made a point to meet with and
encourage her. In her scriptures, we found 8 letters from her stake
president, written to her over the past 6 months, trying to give her
encouragement and comfort.
Saito shimai, was a very faithful sister. She had traveled to all the
early church sites, as well as Jerusalem. She visited and attended
sessions at many of the temples. My wife and I have attended the temple
with her many times. The last time I went to the temple with her was in
New York City, 2 years ago. At that time, Saito shimai had been fighting
cancer for 16 years. She was receiving chemo and radiation, had lost all
her hair and was very sick. She insisted on going to the temple. We
almost had to carry her, she was so weak. After the session, she was
sitting in the Celestial Room. I commented to her that she must really be
hurting and feeling tired. She told me that she wanted to come to the
temple, because it is the only place where she can go and not feel any
pain. When my wife went to Japan last November to be with her for a week,
Saito shimai wanted to go to the temple in Tokyo. She had to lay down on
the back seat of the car to get there. In the Celestial room she made the
same comment to my wife.
Saito shimai's legacy are her 3 children. Umihiko the oldest son, served
his mission in Kobe, Japan. He graduated from SUU and received his MBA
from Ohio State. He is married with 3 children, living in Columbus, Ohio.
Yoko graduated from BYU with her BS and MS and is currently finishing up
her Phd in Linguistics at Columbia University. She is married with one
child, living near Philadelphia. Yumeka, the youngest daughter, graduated
from a top tier university in Japan and lives at home with her Dad.
Saito Kyodai never joined the church, despite being taught the lessons 3
times and being
around church members and missionaries for more than 30 years.
I received email condolances from Morgan Choro, who baptized Saito Shimai.
I spoke with Poelman choro when he telephoned the Saito's with his
condolances. Hattori kyodai, who was a student at Chiba Dai from
1974-1978, Ward Mission Leader of the Chiba branch and now serving as
Machida Stake President, came the next day to the Saito home to pay his
respects. President Miura came. He was Branch President in Chiba in 1975
when Saito shimai was baptized. He now lives in Funabashi. I also spoke
with Kinoshita kyodai (married Sakuma Shimai). He later became Bishop of
Chiba Ward. That said, his wife has always been the the back bone of that
ward, since it was a shibu. She was a very good friend to Saito Shimai and
her help and kindness, especially over the last 6 months, will always be
remembered. Many other old members from Chiba Branch as well as the
current ward members came to pay their respects.
May God's riches blessings be with the Saito Family because of the kindness
of Saito Shimai to so many missionaries.
Dean Ellis
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