A mother writes her daughter

My mother, Sonja Margaret Taschdjian Donahue, grew up in Europe and Asia during World War II. At age eleven, Sonja, and her nine-year-old brother John, lost their mother to breast cancer. Their father, Edgar Taschdjian, was living and working in Beijing, China. In his absence, Sonja and John were being raised by their paternal grandparents in Vienna, Austria. Edgar Taschdjian was employed as an assistant to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, the French philosopher, Jesuit priest, and paleotologist. Teilhard was working to reconstruct the bones of Peking Man, the group of early humans whose discovery gave a big boost to the theory of evolution.

Not being anxious to raise the two children indefinitely, the grandparents thought it best to reunite them with their father. So they put Sonja and John on a train--unaccompanied by any adult--to travel alone across Russia to China via the Trans-Siberian Railroad. It was June 1941, and the train pulled away only hours before the start of Operation Barbarossa, code-named for Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union. Family lore claims the train wasn't bombed as it made its way across Eurasia because the Japanese ambassador to Nazi Germany, Hiroshi Oshima, was a passenger.

When the long train journey ended, Sonja and John were reunited with their father in Beijing. Edgar introduced them to his co-worker, Claire Hershberg, who also assisted Teilhard in his work. Edgar and Claire married, and the four of them lived together in Beijing for seven years.

Those early experiences of living under siege and constant stress made a lasting impression on Sonja. She struggled to survive in a shattered world compounded by sudden separations that might last forever. Eventually, with help from friends and relatives, Sonja was able to immigrate to America and moved to Chicago, Illinois to attend Loyola University. She met and married my father, Gilbert Donahue, and together they raised three children. Sonja became interested in early childhood education, trained as a Montessori teacher, and became one of the founding members of the American Montessori Society.

I've kept some of the letters Sonja wrote to me from 1961 to 2000. As a tribute to Sonja, who is now living in a nursing home in Alexandria, Virginia, I share these letters with you.

Next: September 24, 1961