Sayonara!

Monica Deife has spent the past couple of years living and working in Odessa, interspersed with several trips back to her home in Japan or to join her husband on a business trip to another foreign country. She has lived in Japan for many years, and she and Masato have two grown children.

When her mother, retired Odessa school teacher Mildred Deife, began to experience declining health, Monica came to Odessa to help care for her. As her mother progressed from needing occasional help to requiring full-time care in the hospital, Monica began working for The Odessa Record as a way to fill up some...