gotohealth's Blog

New Year Eve 2017, the Goto brothers and sisters gathered to wish Sam Goto farewell.  As the day passed, sister Irene commented, “Do you realize Sam was born on the 13th and today is the 31st?” 

 

When Sam and I first started dating in 1960, I was studying at his 1438 Medical Dental Building office. As a Dental Technician, working late for Sam was common. I was completing my Public Health Nursing degree at the University of Washington. For some reason, Sam commented, “I was born on Friday the 13th.” That year the Seattle phone directory had calendars for many previous years. So, I looked up when Friday the 13th occurred in 1933, knowing he was six years older than me. 

 

I found Friday the 13th was in January that year. Since my birthday is January 14th, it was another confirmation that maybe we were meant to be together? If one believes in Numerology, I’m a number 1 and Sam is a number 3, which together is a 13? :-)

 

He had two birthday parties, one when he was 13 and the other when he was 31.  

 

Several years later, in 1971, we decided to reward ourselves with a 10th anniversary trip to Japan. We had to go to the City of Seattle Vital Statistics to get a copy of his birth certificate to get our passport. 

 

To our surprise, not only was Sam born on Friday the 13th, he was born at 1303 Washington Street, at 3am at the home of a Japanese midwife. He was listed as the 3rd child of a mother 23 and a father 33. Their address was Lot 1, box 31 - 3C, Renton, Washington.

 

One month later, we were at the Takanawa Prince Hotel in Tokyo. I was hanging my dress in the closet and saw that the cleaning tag was #3. Then Sam and I talked about the day being October 3rd. But we commented, “At least we are on the 14th floor.” The next morning we realized there was no 13th floor so our room was actually on floor 13. 

 

Subsequently, our life has been filled with 3s, 13s, coincidences and serendipities. It wasn’t totally clear, but in his last days, we asked him to give us sign of his communication after his passing. He indicated that it would be for us to notice the number13.