Print
E-mail
Comment
Rate
A family bond forever
 |
| Those at the Strother family reunion, front row from left, are: Joyce Carpenter, Yonghong Li, also known as Dora Lee, and Guigin Wang; back row, Xiangdong Wang, Earlene Strother, Dr. Jim Carpenter and Joe Strother. Joe's and Joyce's parents had adopted Li and named her Dora Lee after her mother was killed in a Japanese bombing raid in 1938 in Bozhou, China. |
By Blake Spurney Editor
The Strother family finally became complete last week.
All it took was 60 years, World War II, a communist revolution in China and some amazing coincidences.
Joe Strother and his sister, Joyce Carpenter of Greer, S.C., saw their adopted sister for the first time in 60 years when Yonghong Li, also known as Dora Lee, visited Clayton for three days.
Changed names, cultural differences and intervening years might cause some confusion, but the bond formed during the 1938 Christmas season remained durable.
"Joyce has talked about Dora ever since we got married 52 years ago," said Dr. Jim Carpenter.
"Yes, she was always family," Joyce said.
Earlene Strother knew about Dora before she married Joe. "I just knew she was the baby they adopted at Christmas and had to leave behind," she said. "So I always knew about Dora." She and husband Joe moved to Clayton about 11 years ago.
Greene W. and Martha Strother were serving as missionaries in Bozhou in 1938 when the Japanese overtook the city. In her book, "Twilight in China," Martha described how she promised her four children they would have a Christmas tree to decorate. They didn't get to decorate it until Christmas Eve, a day that also was accompanied by a stranger knocking on the door of their mission.
The visitor's wife was killed during a Japanese strafing of the city 10 days earlier. She was holding their baby at the time, and the infant girl fell to the ground unhurt. Her father wanted to leave the baby at the mission; either that or he would leave her on a snow drift where dogs would likely eat her.
The Americans took in the child wrapped in a burlap sack and named her Dora Lee. Her first name was Greek for "gift."
For two years, the family raised the child as its own. The Strothers left China in 1940 amid the growing turmoil caused by the Japanese occupation and growing tension between Japan and the United States. They were forced to leave Dora behind because American immigration policy precluded them from bringing a Chinese baby to the U.S.
Dora Lee was left with the principal of a high school and his wife, and her new name became Yonghong Li.
"I heard this story when I was young, but I didn't know their names," Dora said about the Strothers, her son interpreting.
Her family later moved to Nanjing, and Joe saw her in 1948 when he was 14 and she was 9. That same year, the communist revolution in China overtook Nanjing, and the U.S. Navy sent a ship to pick up Americans like Joe.
"I was the last American child in northern China," he said.
Li and her family soon moved back to Bozhou. The distance between her and her American family remained insurmountable for more than 40 years. President Richard Nixon performed a diplomatic coup in 1972 when he opened up relations with China for the fist time since Mao Zedong's communist takeover. But the détente was a brief warm front in the geopolitical stakes of the Cold War until the 1980s.
Joe and Earlene went back to China three times between 1986-2002 to teach English. Each time they were prevented from going to Bozhou because of time constraints and travel restrictions by the Chinese government. Even globalization didn't open the northern plains to outsiders. Joe said university officials told him it was best if they did not go there in 2001 because there were no foreign hotels.
Meanwhile, attempts to locate Dora Lee were complicated by the Chinese postal system, which didn't always reach Bozhou until recent years. Locating a long lost contact in a nation of more than 1 billion people also posed significant challenges.
"Plus we didn't even know who to contact," Joe said.
A childhood friend of Joe, John Chu, wrote to him in 1990. Chu's father had worked as a pastor with Joe's father. Chu lived in Shanghai at the time, but he was originally from Bozhou. He tracked down the lost little girl for him. She still lived in Bozhou, where she had spent her career as a middle school principal (high school in the U.S.).
"My guess, he wrote some of his friends in Bozhou, who would have remembered my family and remembered her family," Joe said. "Thankfully, Dora had not moved. She was there."
That serendipitous connection enabled Joe to write to Dora in the 1990s. He also sent her a copy of his mother's book, which detailed her family's experiences in China.
"Well, she was thrilled, and then I sent her some of our baby pictures. We knew nothing of her family," Joe said.
Those baby pictures show the Strother children holding their "Christmas gift." Li wrote Joe about her four children. Still, their family reunion was put off for at least another decade.
Communication between Dora and Joe was another difficult bridge to cross because Dora doesn't speak English, and the Strothers don't write in Chinese.
One of Li's three sons, Xiangdong Wang, helped bridge the gap during this past Christmas season. Wang said his mother visited him in Ottawa, Canada, in mid-November. She brought with her the Strothers' address, and Wang wrote them in December: "I and all my family sincerely thank your parents and your family for bringing up my mother." Wang also included his e-mail address, and they began exchanging e-mails.
Earlene said she and Joe asked about Wang's mother. He replied that she was visiting him in Ottawa. Li, her son and his wife, Guigin, then arranged a visit to Rabun County. The hosts took their guest on a Lake Burton boat ride, atop Black Rock Mountain and to The Dillard House.
The nontraditional family also caught up on the past six decades. Li reminded Joe of their 1948 reunion. Xiangdong said his mother's nickname as a child was Dora. They also learned that Joyce, Li and Joe all were married within the same year. Li's husband died a year ago.
Despite the disparate backgrounds between Li and her adopted family, they all seemed to follow the same career path. Everyone who got together took up teaching as a career with the exception of Jim Carpenter, a physician.
Li also passed along a message to Joyce from Florence, a childhood friend Joyce hadn't seen since their days in China together nearly 70 years ago.
While the familial flame kept burning since that fateful day in 1938, some differences between East and West were harder to overcome. Joe pointed to shoes by his front door and said he couldn't keep his guests from taking their shoes off upon entering his house.
All it took was 60 years, World War II, a communist revolution in China and some amazing coincidences.
Joe Strother and his sister, Joyce Carpenter of Greer, S.C., saw their adopted sister for the first time in 60 years when Yonghong Li, also known as Dora Lee, visited Clayton for three days.
Changed names, cultural differences and intervening years might cause some confusion, but the bond formed during the 1938 Christmas season remained durable.
"Joyce has talked about Dora ever since we got married 52 years ago," said Dr. Jim Carpenter.
"Yes, she was always family," Joyce said.
Earlene Strother knew about Dora before she married Joe. "I just knew she was the baby they adopted at Christmas and had to leave behind," she said. "So I always knew about Dora." She and husband Joe moved to Clayton about 11 years ago.
Greene W. and Martha Strother were serving as missionaries in Bozhou in 1938 when the Japanese overtook the city. In her book, "Twilight in China," Martha described how she promised her four children they would have a Christmas tree to decorate. They didn't get to decorate it until Christmas Eve, a day that also was accompanied by a stranger knocking on the door of their mission.
The visitor's wife was killed during a Japanese strafing of the city 10 days earlier. She was holding their baby at the time, and the infant girl fell to the ground unhurt. Her father wanted to leave the baby at the mission; either that or he would leave her on a snow drift where dogs would likely eat her.
The Americans took in the child wrapped in a burlap sack and named her Dora Lee. Her first name was Greek for "gift."
For two years, the family raised the child as its own. The Strothers left China in 1940 amid the growing turmoil caused by the Japanese occupation and growing tension between Japan and the United States. They were forced to leave Dora behind because American immigration policy precluded them from bringing a Chinese baby to the U.S.
Dora Lee was left with the principal of a high school and his wife, and her new name became Yonghong Li.
"I heard this story when I was young, but I didn't know their names," Dora said about the Strothers, her son interpreting.
Her family later moved to Nanjing, and Joe saw her in 1948 when he was 14 and she was 9. That same year, the communist revolution in China overtook Nanjing, and the U.S. Navy sent a ship to pick up Americans like Joe.
"I was the last American child in northern China," he said.
Li and her family soon moved back to Bozhou. The distance between her and her American family remained insurmountable for more than 40 years. President Richard Nixon performed a diplomatic coup in 1972 when he opened up relations with China for the fist time since Mao Zedong's communist takeover. But the détente was a brief warm front in the geopolitical stakes of the Cold War until the 1980s.
Joe and Earlene went back to China three times between 1986-2002 to teach English. Each time they were prevented from going to Bozhou because of time constraints and travel restrictions by the Chinese government. Even globalization didn't open the northern plains to outsiders. Joe said university officials told him it was best if they did not go there in 2001 because there were no foreign hotels.
Meanwhile, attempts to locate Dora Lee were complicated by the Chinese postal system, which didn't always reach Bozhou until recent years. Locating a long lost contact in a nation of more than 1 billion people also posed significant challenges.
"Plus we didn't even know who to contact," Joe said.
A childhood friend of Joe, John Chu, wrote to him in 1990. Chu's father had worked as a pastor with Joe's father. Chu lived in Shanghai at the time, but he was originally from Bozhou. He tracked down the lost little girl for him. She still lived in Bozhou, where she had spent her career as a middle school principal (high school in the U.S.).
"My guess, he wrote some of his friends in Bozhou, who would have remembered my family and remembered her family," Joe said. "Thankfully, Dora had not moved. She was there."
That serendipitous connection enabled Joe to write to Dora in the 1990s. He also sent her a copy of his mother's book, which detailed her family's experiences in China.
"Well, she was thrilled, and then I sent her some of our baby pictures. We knew nothing of her family," Joe said.
Those baby pictures show the Strother children holding their "Christmas gift." Li wrote Joe about her four children. Still, their family reunion was put off for at least another decade.
Communication between Dora and Joe was another difficult bridge to cross because Dora doesn't speak English, and the Strothers don't write in Chinese.
One of Li's three sons, Xiangdong Wang, helped bridge the gap during this past Christmas season. Wang said his mother visited him in Ottawa, Canada, in mid-November. She brought with her the Strothers' address, and Wang wrote them in December: "I and all my family sincerely thank your parents and your family for bringing up my mother." Wang also included his e-mail address, and they began exchanging e-mails.
Earlene said she and Joe asked about Wang's mother. He replied that she was visiting him in Ottawa. Li, her son and his wife, Guigin, then arranged a visit to Rabun County. The hosts took their guest on a Lake Burton boat ride, atop Black Rock Mountain and to The Dillard House.
The nontraditional family also caught up on the past six decades. Li reminded Joe of their 1948 reunion. Xiangdong said his mother's nickname as a child was Dora. They also learned that Joyce, Li and Joe all were married within the same year. Li's husband died a year ago.
Despite the disparate backgrounds between Li and her adopted family, they all seemed to follow the same career path. Everyone who got together took up teaching as a career with the exception of Jim Carpenter, a physician.
Li also passed along a message to Joyce from Florence, a childhood friend Joyce hadn't seen since their days in China together nearly 70 years ago.
While the familial flame kept burning since that fateful day in 1938, some differences between East and West were harder to overcome. Joe pointed to shoes by his front door and said he couldn't keep his guests from taking their shoes off upon entering his house.
 |
 |
|
| Child drowns in Lake Burton | County sued for nude dancing law |
Article Rating
Reader Comments
The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of theclaytontribune.com.
