Her mother, Kanako Mori, a seamstress, is a young widow who has to work hard to put food on the table for her children.
As young as 7 years old, Ruri realizes life is not easy for her, her mother, and her siblings. It won’t get any easier if she is just going to sit idly by.
She knows she has to pitch in and help in her little ways.
Born, raised, and educated in Chuuk, Marcia Ruri Erra Ayuyu — who’s also known as Mrs. Ayuyu or Mrs. McDonald’s on Saipan) — looks back on how her mother pulled the family together like she would stitch together pieces of garment.
“Growing up, I came from a big family, eight of us, two girls and six boys. My mom worked so hard to bring us up. My father died when I was very young, maybe six or seven years old,” recalls Mrs. Ayuyu.
“I don’t really remember my dad because I was too young. He was maybe around 60 when he died,” she says.
She recalls her father would come home drunk yet she never heard her mother get mad at him.
She shares with Variety their struggles as a family and how her mother single-handedly worked and raised all her children.
“When I was growing up, I learned from my mother cutting, getting up on the sewing machine, and sewing clothes,” says Mrs. Ayuyu who tells Variety that those were the things she did while growing up aside from going to school.
She says her mother would like her to learn how to sew because she would need her help. “We had a lot of customers and she needs help,” she says.
Seeing how hardworking her mother was, the young Ruri never entertained the thought of spending her leisure time away from her.
More often, after school, rather than spend her time playing, Ruri joins her mother at the dress shop and helps her out. “Just helping my mother sewing clothes and putting food on the table. I had no time to play,” she says.
Despite that, Mrs. Ayuyu says the years she spent in her mother’s dress shop were some of the best years of her life.
When not busy in the dress shop, Mrs. Ayuyu says she went to her mother’s family’s restaurant and hotel called Bay View Hotel.
Both she and her mother worked at the family-owned hotel when it was busy, she says.
“I can say they were not rich but they had money,” Mrs. Ayuyu describes her mother’s family.
Her mother, she says, was one of the 10 children of a half-Chuukese, half-Japanese. She says her great grandfather was originally from Japan and settled in Chuuk and fell in love with a Chuukese woman—her great grandmother.
Other than this, she says, she had no knowledge of her roots saying she’s even having a hard time helping her children do their family tree project in school.
The value of hard work
Having worked with her mother since the age of seven, Mrs. Ayuyu says she learned the values of hard work and humility.
Her mother, who died on Saipan in March 1999, suffered from stroke for many years, she says.
“My mom was a workaholic,” says Mrs. Ayuyu.
She traces the incident to the day when she fell on the ground for working too much.
She recalls that it was during her cousin’s wedding. Everybody was helping out including her mother who spent sleepless nights preparing for the wedding.
“When the wedding began, she fell and we rushed her to the hospital,” says Mrs. Ayuyu.
Her mother’s half body was paralyzed and Mrs. Ayuyu says since 1977 up to 1999 she took care of her mother except for the time she spent with her brother on Guam.
“When my husband came along, I was still watching my mother at that time,” she says.
Asked by Variety what she remembers most about her mother, she says, “She is a hardworking lady. She really worked hard to take care of our family’s needs.”
She shares with Variety that she admires her humility. “She always takes the back seat.”
As a wife and a mother, Mrs. Ayuyu also has praises for her.
Despite her father coming home drunk often, she says, she never saw her mother get mad as others would.
“I know that when my father comes home drunk, he didn’t cause trouble. My mother didn’t say anything and it seemed OK with her,” remembers Mrs. Ayuyu adding that her mother just fulfilled her duties as mother and wife.
She tells Variety that she kept raising them and kept working to put food on the table with no complaint.
“When my dad passed away, she just continued what she does. I admire her for that.”
Along came Joe
The year was 1986 when a young bank manager Joe Ayuyu moved to Chuuk and given his cheerful disposition, he easily became friends of everbody, including Ruri’s family.
From 1986 to 1988, Marcia, as she was known then at Continental hotel where she worked, would ran into Joe Ayuyu.
She fondly remembers those days when he would come up to her and joke if she could cook for him.
But Mrs. Ayuyu admits that the first time he laid his eyes on her, she felt a connection. She knew “he’s the one.”
She says it was common during those days for the elders to fix marriages.
She says she tried but she felt nothing for the cousin of her sister’s husband. There was one from Guam yet she never felt anything for him either.
There was a man from Yap with whom she fell in love yet her family disapproved of.
With Joe, she says, it went smoothly.
She remembers the time when he brought his daughter from his first marriage to Chuuk. He told her his affection for the future Mrs. Ayuyu. The young girl, she says, came up to her to tell her, “My father says he likes you.”
It wasn’t a long courtship as she recalled Mr. Ayuyu had to move to Majuro. Then he proposed and wanted to ask her hand in marriage.
At that time, she says, the elders in her family decided on matters like this.
Unlike with the guy from Yap who proposed and asked her relatives for their approval, with Joe, she says, they gave their blessings right there and then. Soon, she was off to Majuro with him and then to Saipan.
Having been together for more than two decades, Mrs. Ayuyu looks back and expresses gratitude to God that she married the right guy.
“He is very kind and understanding. He cares so much. He knows that his family comes first. He takes care of our family,” she says.
She admits that when it comes to making decisions for the family, she says it’s Mr. Ayuyu who calls the shots.
But as a mother, she tells Variety, “I love every minute of it. I hate to see my kids grow so fast. I love every minute with my kids.”
Now that two of her children are in college and two remain with them, she makes it a point that they spend quality time.
Despite the busy schedule at the McDonald’s store, she says she makes sure that Sunday is spent with the family—hearing mass, watching a movie, and eating out together.
“I teach my kids to always believe in God and to be humble just like my mom. She’s always humble,” she tells Variety.
She is thankful to God for everything and she says she always tells her children that “God never sleeps.”
Asked if she ever contemplates on retiring, Mrs. Ayuyu says, “I want to keep working (for as long as I could.”
But with Joe, she says, he would like the two of them to travel and spend time together.
Looking back, Mrs. Ayuyu says she thanks God for the myriad of blessings she has received over the years.
She’s also grateful for her mother who taught her the values of hard work and humility, in the dress shop where she also mastered making stitches.
