Dear Lorna-san & Larry-san,
Thank you very much for your lovely greeting card.
I was very happy to receive the card.
Unfortunately, I must inform you of some very painful news.
As you heard from Kevin Barbee-san,
Hwa-Ja passed away last year on July 19th. She was only 42 years old.
The cause of her passing was ovarian cancer.
I believe the ever “ganbari-ya” (enduring or persistent), Hwa-Ja
neglected her body’s warning signals and continued to prioritize her family and work.
When her illness was discovered, it was already in the terminal stage.
And after only a short three months of battling with the disease in the hospital,
she departed from our world…
Since Hwa-Ja was a very strong and private person, she decided to battle cancer on her own,
without telling many of her friends.
Both of us as Disney designers,
always helped each other and respected each other,
so, this experience has been extremely difficult, sad and heart-aching.
I sincerely apologize for not being able to inform you earlier.
I knew Hwa-Ja for 19 years, and we were happily married for 6 years.
Since I was acquainted to many of her Disney work colleagues, school friends, I was able to inform many of them; however, when Hwa-Ja was in Osaka working with her colleagues at USJ, I did not have the opportunity to meet with you, so I was unable to contact you or any of them….
Lorna-san and Larry-san, since I was unaware that you were Hwa-Ja’s friends from her time at USJ, had I known, I would have sent an explanation with the card I sent to you.
I am sorry for not writing any message with the card that I sent.
The illustration in the card I drew depicts Hwa-Ja in heaven watching over me.
The card was sent only by me, however, I wanted to express our feelings in the card as from the both of us, so I imitated her signature on the card the way she would have.
Lorna-san and Larry-san, I am so sorry that you mistook for her being alive and “genki”….
I truly apologize for this….
Many, many friends took the time to gather for her funeral.
I am sure that Hwa-Ja would be surprised at the number of people who loved her.
Even at USJ, I am sure that she was loved by all of you too.
As you know, after USJ, she moved on to the Tokyo DisneySea project.
Working with many talented people who loved her, I believe that she was very happy to take part in designing two major theme park projects to be enjoyed by many, many people.
Hwa-Ja no longer lives in the world we live in, but has traveled ahead of us into another world.
Certainly we can no longer meet and speak to her directly.
Although, I strongly believe that Hwa-Ja’s spirit has not left us.
I know that it may not be appropriate to make this request of the two of you, but
if you wouldn’t mind, could you relay to the other members of USJ what happened to Hwa-Ja…?
Also, would it be possible for you to provide information on how she worked at USJ, any memories or episodes with Hwa-Ja?
Since Hwa-Ja’s family and I know little of her experiences with her friends at USJ, I know that I am asking too much of you, but, it would mean so much to us if you could share your stories with us.
Please forgive me for sending a letter with such painful news.
If there is an opportunity in the future, I hope to send you another letter.
For now, so long.
Sincerely,
Seisaku Sato
Translated by: Hiromi.