Repairing typewriters and copiers
My husband was in the Navy and when he got out of the Navy, his brother in law worked for IBM. He was a customer engineer down in Southern California. And at the time my brother had a devastating accident and Pete got hired at IBM in Southern California but he explained the need for us to be in Northern California. So they arranged for him to interview with IBM in San Jose and they hired him as a customer engineer. This was in May of 1974 and he was hired to repair typewriters and he started working for them at that time.
When he was first servicing typewriters, he was out in the field driving all over the area like Palo Alto down there and he repaired all the typewriters and then he learned how to repair the copiers and he repaired those.
It wasn't until 1979 that he went to work at the IBM plant where he actually was in the clean rooms there. But he was exposed to a lot of chemicals while he was a customer engineer also out in the field.
It was cleaners that they would use on the typewriters and the copiers. He showed me how they would just pour these chemicals on the typewriters and then blow it with a blower. But they didn't have gloves. They didn't have anything to put all those rags in and all that was in his car while he drove around all day with probably the smell of those chemicals.
When he was in the Navy that's where he got all his electronics training. And when he went to work at IBM he did well at any of his jobs. They used to give awards for suggestions in the company and he won a few awards like that. And he traveled a little bit for IBM. He went to Germany, he went to Japan as they were moving different things overseas. He helped with the transition of that.
I think he had thirty years with IBM when he retired from there. I think he retired in 2005.
Seemingly sterile environment
I did go to the plant and he took us into the clean room and I got to see the operations. It was like a little spaceship that they had to climb into but they had to wear all those things. I mean you couldn't touch anything and it looked like a sterile environment but it didn't smell like a sterile environment.
It looked like something from the future you know like pods that were in there and you could see the products that they were creating. But each one was as big as maybe this carpet right here and the person had to go in there with those suits and work in that little environment.
He really liked it when he first went to work for them. He said they were a much better company, that they cared about their people. They made their people feel like they appreciated them. But as time went on, the appreciation of their people seemed to start diminishing and they were just kind of out to make the big bucks, he said. They were so family oriented and everything in the beginning and then towards the end it was just strictly business.
To watch somebody being destroyed
He started having trouble breathing just going up the stairs and he went to the doctor. They found that he had fluid accumulating in his chest cavity and once they did X rays they said he had a tumor that was entwined around his heart and he was I think forty six years old and it even was in the pathology report that this was presented in a weird way, an unusual way and they couldn't do surgery so he had to do chemo and radiation.
He got sick in 1996 and he was out of work for a whole year when he was sick. He was not able to work at all during that time. Maybe it was guilt pay. They paid him the whole time he was sick. One of his bosses did come and see him in the hospital.
It was grueling to watch somebody being destroyed. That's what it felt like every time they gave him chemo every time they did anything, he just got worse and worse. It's almost like you're standing there and you can't help them and you don't know what they're doing is helping him or not. It pretty much brings them to death and then you bring them back if they're lucky. I mean he was given a fifty percent chance of surviving this. At that time I felt helpless to help him.
He ended up with a brain tumor which when I read about brain tumors it could have been caused by the radiation that was given to him back in 1996 because even though his tumor was in his chest, they did radiation to the brain to prevent it from going there. They probably did not even need to do that but that is when you look back and go. Did we have a choice?
I don't know that we had a choice to not do that because you're so afraid of cancer that you want to do whatever they're recommending and that's what they had recommended.
I can't think of anything negative about him
At first you're just such a shock of what's happening. All you can think of is trying to save them instead of why it happened. But I think along the lines he started thinking more about why this happened to him out of the clear blue. So I think sometime during his illness it became a concern.
One thing my husband always said is he felt like the treatment and everything he went through from his illness took at least ten years off his life and today I feel that what they did to them then caused the cancer that killed him four years ago.
Well he was a good husband.
I was married forty two years when he died.
I have four children. We all miss him.
He was a big part of everybody's life.
He just was one of those guys that everybody liked.
He always had a smile on his face.
He was very kind.
I can't think of anything negative about him.
He would do anything for anybody.
He was very well liked at work. He did a good job, he knew his job he did it well.
I'm at a point in my life that we worked for and I don't have it. He was my life. And I have to figure out the rest of my life without him. And I'd give anything to have him here with me.
Interviewer Media Cuckoo
Writer Lim Dayun
Painter Park Jeongwon
Repairing typewriters and copiers
My husband was in the Navy and when he got out of the Navy, his brother in law worked for IBM. He was a customer engineer down in Southern California. And at the time my brother had a devastating accident and Pete got hired at IBM in Southern California but he explained the need for us to be in Northern California. So they arranged for him to interview with IBM in San Jose and they hired him as a customer engineer. This was in May of 1974 and he was hired to repair typewriters and he started working for them at that time.
When he was first servicing typewriters, he was out in the field driving all over the area like Palo Alto down there and he repaired all the typewriters and then he learned how to repair the copiers and he repaired those.
It wasn't until 1979 that he went to work at the IBM plant where he actually was in the clean rooms there. But he was exposed to a lot of chemicals while he was a customer engineer also out in the field.
It was cleaners that they would use on the typewriters and the copiers. He showed me how they would just pour these chemicals on the typewriters and then blow it with a blower. But they didn't have gloves. They didn't have anything to put all those rags in and all that was in his car while he drove around all day with probably the smell of those chemicals.
When he was in the Navy that's where he got all his electronics training. And when he went to work at IBM he did well at any of his jobs. They used to give awards for suggestions in the company and he won a few awards like that. And he traveled a little bit for IBM. He went to Germany, he went to Japan as they were moving different things overseas. He helped with the transition of that.
I think he had thirty years with IBM when he retired from there. I think he retired in 2005.
Seemingly sterile environment
I did go to the plant and he took us into the clean room and I got to see the operations. It was like a little spaceship that they had to climb into but they had to wear all those things. I mean you couldn't touch anything and it looked like a sterile environment but it didn't smell like a sterile environment.
It looked like something from the future you know like pods that were in there and you could see the products that they were creating. But each one was as big as maybe this carpet right here and the person had to go in there with those suits and work in that little environment.
He really liked it when he first went to work for them. He said they were a much better company, that they cared about their people. They made their people feel like they appreciated them. But as time went on, the appreciation of their people seemed to start diminishing and they were just kind of out to make the big bucks, he said. They were so family oriented and everything in the beginning and then towards the end it was just strictly business.
To watch somebody being destroyed
He started having trouble breathing just going up the stairs and he went to the doctor. They found that he had fluid accumulating in his chest cavity and once they did X rays they said he had a tumor that was entwined around his heart and he was I think forty six years old and it even was in the pathology report that this was presented in a weird way, an unusual way and they couldn't do surgery so he had to do chemo and radiation.
He got sick in 1996 and he was out of work for a whole year when he was sick. He was not able to work at all during that time. Maybe it was guilt pay. They paid him the whole time he was sick. One of his bosses did come and see him in the hospital.
It was grueling to watch somebody being destroyed. That's what it felt like every time they gave him chemo every time they did anything, he just got worse and worse. It's almost like you're standing there and you can't help them and you don't know what they're doing is helping him or not. It pretty much brings them to death and then you bring them back if they're lucky. I mean he was given a fifty percent chance of surviving this. At that time I felt helpless to help him.
He ended up with a brain tumor which when I read about brain tumors it could have been caused by the radiation that was given to him back in 1996 because even though his tumor was in his chest, they did radiation to the brain to prevent it from going there. They probably did not even need to do that but that is when you look back and go. Did we have a choice?
I don't know that we had a choice to not do that because you're so afraid of cancer that you want to do whatever they're recommending and that's what they had recommended.
I can't think of anything negative about him
At first you're just such a shock of what's happening. All you can think of is trying to save them instead of why it happened. But I think along the lines he started thinking more about why this happened to him out of the clear blue. So I think sometime during his illness it became a concern.
One thing my husband always said is he felt like the treatment and everything he went through from his illness took at least ten years off his life and today I feel that what they did to them then caused the cancer that killed him four years ago.
Well he was a good husband.
I was married forty two years when he died.
I have four children. We all miss him.
He was a big part of everybody's life.
He just was one of those guys that everybody liked.
He always had a smile on his face.
He was very kind.
I can't think of anything negative about him.
He would do anything for anybody.
He was very well liked at work. He did a good job, he knew his job he did it well.
I'm at a point in my life that we worked for and I don't have it. He was my life. And I have to figure out the rest of my life without him. And I'd give anything to have him here with me.
Interviewer Media Cuckoo
Writer Lim Dayun
Painter Park Jeongwon