Elk Grove Woman Lived Through Japanese Internment, Stage-4 Breast Cancer – Now, She's Fully Vaccinated Against COVID
ELK GROVE (CBS13) – A 90-year-old Elk Grove woman who lived through Japanese internment camps during WWII and then went on to beat breast cancer is now fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Alyce Tabuchi got her second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in February at Kaiser Permanente.
"There was no pain – it was just a matter of 'boop, oh, it's all done,' " Alyce said.
While in great spirits, for Alyce, the pandemic is personal. She lost her husband's nephew and brother-in-law to the coronavirus.
"That was enough for me to be convinced that we should all be vaccinated," she said.
Alyce now lives with her son, Jim, and his wife at their home in Elk Grove.
"We really felt like we had to shrink wrap and bubble wrap my mother," Jim Tabuchi said. "We felt like we had to live in protection for her."
When the stay-at-home order was implemented, Alyce did just that – visiting family through the living room window and attending church services virtually. Jim said his mother getting vaccinated took a huge weight off of their shoulders.
"We as a family, we lived like a 90-year-old because we knew if we got it and brought it home, then she would be subjected to it," he said.
Alyce, who was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer three years ago, is now cancer-free, but she has always been a survivor. Born and raised in California, at just 11 years old (during WWII) she spent 2.5 years at the Japanese internment camp in Tule Lake.
"It was devastating being put into camp, but as an 11-year-old, I don't know if I felt it as much as the older people," Alyce said.
Decades later, it's Alyce's generation who is feeling the effects of COVID-19 the most. But now, armed with the vaccine, Alyce has renewed hope.
"It will be nice, eventually, to get together with family and friends – that's what I look forward to – then going back to church and seeing everybody," she said.
"She is so positive about it, she is not done living life – she has a lot of life in front of her," Jim said.
