Plymouth High School Class of 1958 50th reunion

(in front of former high school)

1st row: Carol Vilwock, Lois Mayhew, Sandra Steiner, Phyllis Limberg, Janet Schmidt, Carolyn Miller, Raylean Kreutzinger, Betty Duquette, Kay Kohlman, Judy Franzen, Sharon Nelson, Carol Bemis, Eunice Blanke, Claire Harder.

2nd row: Eleanor Boedecker, Jeanne Steinke, Myra Falk, Pat Miller, Judy Felt, Janice Grunewald, Darlene Lau, Dorothy Mohs, Sondra Opitz, Diane Suemnicht, Bev Suemnicht, Janet Pfleger.

3rd row: Sharon Dezwarte, Karen Kison, Reta Noordyke, Judy Lehman, Bille Jo Hawkins, Judy Schmidt, Ruth Lilb, Joann Kolpin, Sharon Mahloch, Diane Berth, Carolyn Jochmann.

4th row: Dorothy Langkabel, Janet Sieber, Dan Lutzke, Bob Anhalt, Kaz Maekawa, Phil Kruger, Jim Owens, Dave Wacker,Vern Durst.

5th row: Warner Prange, Jon Guth, Allen Hellmer, Lyle Zimmermann, Vilas Backhaus, Bernie Stellmach, Ronald Rautmann, Jane Feldmann.

6th row: Tom Reinke, Ralph Treadway, Dave Schaefer, Bob Becher, Rich Schovan, Tom Splitgerber, Mike Foley, Ron Diederichs, Duane Lau, Gerry Luedtke

Plymouth High School Class of 1959 (wife Mary Szepe) picture

Kazuhiko Mackawa was an exchange student from Japan

Messages from KAZ

March 15, 2011

Subject: Earthquake

Hi Janet,

Thank you for the email. First of all, I am happy to tell you that we are all well. Fortunately, all of my family members live in and around Tokyo. Damage to human lives and property were minimal in this region. Last month, I moved to the new hospital, located on the skirts of Mt.Fuji, working in a capacity of a consultant, though, in effect, a full-time jack-of all-trade surgeon, a full comeback from administration to active services! As such, I am taking a full command in the hospital crisis management sine we had a sudden power cut immediately after the quake and had a a scheduled power cut since. Besides, a series of the nuclear power station accidents! For the past few days, I have been overwhelmed by the number of calls from mass media, asking for the expertise opinion. So my life here has been very active, but a little bit exhausting for a 70 y/o guy! Kaz

December 18, 2014

Subject: Re: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Sharon,

Thanks for a nice Christmas greeting. Glad to hear you are both well. In fact, I was wondering how you have been since your last email. Also nice to hear about the ‘58 girls going strong as ever. This last mid-Oct., my back started to ache without any inciting event. The pain got worse gradually to make myself unable to walk in a matter of few days. The pain of the back and the left leg got very bad and I started to feel numbness on my left leg at the end of the month when I was admitted to my hospital here. The axtra-lateral type of the 3rd lumbar dis hernia was the final diagnosis based on MRIs and other diagnostic modalities. Until the pain was relieved by the endoscopic discectomy done on Nov.5th at one of the private hospitals in Tokyo where they do more than 1,200 cases of endoscopic surgery on the spine, believe me, it was a nightmare with excruciating back pain for about a week. You must have heard of the lumbar dis hernia; in this particular type of hernia, the degenerative intervertebral disc may protrude to compress the nerve root directly, in my case, the 3rd lumbar nerve root. I was back to work two weeks post-op!  I don’t have back pain any more but still have some numbness and pain of my left leg where it is innervated by the 3rd lumbar nerve. After surgery on my back and about three weeks’ hospitalization, I felt weak in vigor as well as in physical strength for a while, but now I guess I am nearly back to where I was. I am still occupied by lots of extra-hospital work; being the Fukushima nuclear plant workers’ long-term health care committee member of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the on-call duty of the nuclear disaster expert group for the Cabinet Office, teaching at a local nursing school, being the director of the small disaster medical assistance NPO and so on. So life goes on like this here. Incidentally, the Mt. Fuji is now capped by snow. It is really gorgeous to look up from here.  We plan to have a family-get-together on a new year’s day at my house as usual, which I am looking forward to, and which I treasure. Kaz