By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Staff Writer
Marianne Schultz had heard people talking about the tragedy aboard the Ehime Maru, but it wasn’t until she got home from work on Saturday and took a look at the front page of the paper that she realized she met two of the missing students the day before the accident. She also realized she had a story, however small, that she wanted to share with their families.
Schultz recognized Katsuya Nomoto as the polite young man who was her customer at Crazy Shirts Ward Village on Thursday morning. She remembers Takeshi Mizuguchi by his glasses, and says other young men in similar uniforms were in her store. They had backpacks covered with buttons from places they had visited.
But it was Nomoto who talked with her. He was buying gifts to take home, and he wanted her help in selecting just the right thing to take home to a girl.
He told Schultz he was a cadet on a high school fishing boat, and said he had the day off. Though his English was halting, they managed to converse. He asked about a yellow T-shirt, size small, with three flowers across the front. "For a friend," he told Schultz.
Struggling over what to do with this small encounter, this snapshot of what probably was the last day of this young man’s life, Schultz composed an open letter to the families of those aboard the Ehime Maru.
She wrote:
"... to let them know that in the day before the tragedy they were happy and anxious to take home the souvenirs that they had bought."
Of Nomoto, the young man buying presents for a friend, she wrote:
"... he made his selections carefully and with much thought. I think now about the girl who was to receive those items and my heart goes out to her as well. If this small offering can let the parents know that they had a nice day on Thursday, I am thankful. I am deeply saddened by this event and can only send my love and prayers to them all."
Schultz says she’s not sure she found the right words, but she wanted to bear witness to the students’ happiness on a good day, a day when they thought about going home.
 Read Schultz’s letter
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