My uncle says he can't help think
I am making up exciting, even lurid stories about his mother's childhood in Turkey
child of missionary parents
her father the President of Anatolia College
and a book on Anatolia College
lists that he was witness to the Armenian genocide
an estimated 1.5 million Armenians killed in Turkey
in the 19 teens
and my grandmother 16 years old escaping Turkey
not knowing the danger they were in
as Christians were being killed too
"escaped" says the family story
but the book says "deported" by the Turks
which history is right?
The book quotes my great grandfather, that 800 men
age 16-60 were taken from their town
to trenches, killed and buried
yet my uncle insists that my grandmother knew nothing
and I wonder, what sort of bell jar was she kept in?
or was she silent
about what she knew
Anatolia College: http://www.anatolia.edu.gr/