Sami Khalafa I was born in San Francisco in 1926, of an African-American father and Japanese mother. My family lived moderately: My parents were not rich, but they provided me with everything I needed and then some. My mother developed Alzheimer disease when she was in her late 60s, but there was no history of cancer in my family.
0-19 Years I was not a great student. Education was important to my mother, however, so I tried very hard. My father died of a heart attack when I was 15, so my mother and I went to live with my mother’s sister. Out lifestyle didn’t change much-we still ate mostly an Asian diet and our lives revolved around family activities. When World War II started, my mother and her sister were sent to Utah to an internment camp for Japanese nationals living in the United States. I was there that I met the young Japanese man who was later to become my husband.	20-39 Years After the war, we moved back to San Francisco where my mother began to take in laundry to support us. Soon after our return to the city, I was married, and my husband and I worked with my mother to build a good laundry and tailoring business. I was in good health except for a little arthritis from the regular sewing. We had three children, but one died in infancy. We thought it was SIDS, but doctors later that it was thalassemia. After my children were born, we began to eat a more “Western” diet of meat and potatoes. ·
40-59 Years Our children both went to college. Our son became a successful businessman; our daughter went to law school and works as a defense lawyer in New York City. I worked less in the business and spent my time offering workshops at the community center on Japanese culture and language. It was important to me to promote an understanding of Japanese culture among people of all ethnic backgrounds.	60+ Years I was shocked when I was diagnosed with Parkinson disease at age 62. I had been active and healthy all my life, needing little in the way of health care. The Parkinson disease, on the other hand, took years to control during that time, I saw my doctor regularly. When I was 67, she convinced me to have a sigmoidoscopy (an examination of my colon); it revealed three polyps, one of which had invaded other tissues. They removed the cancer surgically, but my relief at that was clouded by the Parkinson disease, which was getting worth. Sami died at age 69 of Parkinson disease. Her husband and children remember her each year with a special family dinner on her birthday.