Mieko Toy-Kikuchi

On June 24th, my mom, Mieko Toy-Kikuchi, passed peacefully into the spirit realm. She was born May 5, 1931 in Fukuoka, Japan, the eldest daughter of her father's second wife, but the third child in order, in a family with 9 children, 7 girls and 2 boys. She grew up as the daughter of a 3 star general in the Japanese military, and saw firsthand, the atrocities of World War 2. She had many stories she would tell, and even guest lecturer in my world history class my freshman year in high school. She married a pilot and lived all over the world, eventually settling in Houston, Texas in the 1950's. In 1969, she and her husband Alfred adopted a baby girl. Alfred passed away 18 months later. Undeterred, she later met and married a restaurant owner named Henry Leong Toy. Sadly, in time, she would become a widowed once again. With vigor, she met and married her 3rd and final partner in life, Joe Kikuchi. She would lose Joe in 2016. Since that time, she was discovered to have vascular dementia, a specific form of dementia that is most commonly found among the Japanese. She was cared for by her loving family in Katy, Texas. She leaves behind, one daughter, Arisa, and 2 granddaughters, Julia Elise Ballentine, and Sarah Morgan Ballentine, her ex son in law Jason Scott Ballentine, family friend David Lee Rose, and many friends and family both in Houston, and in Japan.