I remember playing with her kids when I was a kid.
As I left the town, my contact with my parents and Ozaki-san diminished. But when I got back to the town, they were there. Most recently, in 2011, Ozaki-san served as a witness for my first marriage, showing up in the municipal office (Japanese marriage is civil marriage, and requires two witnesses).
It was around that time when I learned that Ozaki-san had pancreatic cancer.
Occasionally over the phone-calls with my mother, I heard how Ozaki-san was doing, like, she had a surgery but the doctors found the cancer inoperable, or she went to Tokyo to get new immune-boost therapy.
My colleague studies pancreatic cancer, and through his presentations I am familiar with the dire statistics for pancreatic cancer. The overall 5-year survival rate after diagnosis, currently in the US, is 4-6 %. The rate is not so different in Japan. Since pancreatic cancer is hard to find, doctors tend to know it too late in an advanced stage. It was the case for Ozaki-san, too.
Pancreas is a critical organ, secreting digestive juice to GI tract and releasing regulatory hormones such as insulin and glucagon to bloodstream. Cancer there can be devastating, and it was to her. The cancer continued to consume her. Last few months was basically terminal care. She was in and out of a hospice. As a long time friend, my mother was involved in Ozaki-san's care.
Ozaki-san passed away on 4/28/2014 because of pancreatic cancer and its complications.
Everyone has to go through his/her own and unique path in life. In the journey we interact with others, sometimes briefly, other times for a long time, in good ways or in bad ways. The interaction between my mother and Ozaki-san was unique in the length and the depth. My mother is fortunate to have had such an interaction, such a friend.
Farewell, Ozaki-san.
