Mary L. Foess

A primal scream erupted in the Charity Ward of Providence Hospital, Washington, D.C., on September 23, 1945. Crying out for Mother, Baby Movsisian felt her loving grip moments after birth, then sensed a struggle as those same, gentle hands would not let go. A white-uniformed nurse intervened. Baby's bassinet was wheeled away once the hospital staff had washed away her birth blood. Judith Movsisian, her given 'name', soon appeared on her original birth certificate. On September 23, 1983, she had a clue as to who had chosen it and why. The tag on her tiny bed read: Charity Ward, bottle feed, no contact with Mother. On September 27, this newborn and her mother left the hospital, but separately. Now renamed 'Mary', she would soon be peppered, at age 3, by her adoptive family members', friends', and teachers' unrelenting questions: "Oh, my! Where did those huge, dark brown eyes come from? Who is your real mother?" Not one of then knew about 'Mother Armenia', or how this surname connected to the 5,000 year-old-civilization. History would dictate that this newborn would be the very last one to inherit both the Movsisian name from a region half-way across the planet Earth, and the nearly extinct, female mitochondrial DNA from Grandmother, Yeghsapert Deorian Movsisian. Mary's grandparents, uncle, and 3 cousins were the sole, surviving family members from the Armenian Genocide. Their Cradle of Civilization-area village suffered the worst destruction. Nor Kegh, Charsandjak, Kharpert, was located in the Euphrates River Valley area, near the eastern area of the Black Sea border. It saw the largest ruin of businesses, churches, homes, and the slaughter of Armenians by the Turkish Muslims! Each step those few who were not tortured, then killed, took on their escape route to freedom, that which was aided by the Kurds and the Greeks, gave Mary and her descendants, yet unborn, 1 more day to live on Earth. Grandfather arrived in Chicago, Illinois, in 1913, 2 years prior to the date when the slaughter of Armenians living there was heightened. In the 9 years which followed, every single one of Mary's grandfather's relatives, the ones who remained in their village, was murdered in cold blood as a result of the unspeakable torture they suffered. Manoog Movsisian and 6 other men soon founded the very first Armenian Apostolic Church in the Midwest. Holy Savior was consecrated on October 26, 1924. Their first choir director, Mary's grandfather, had the voice of an angel. Grandmother survived the grueling journey from her homeland, then settled in Cherbourg, France, with her son, Korean, and 3 cousins, who also 'made it out alive' during the massive exodus from their tiny village. In 1921, Grandmother and Korean emigrated to the U.S.A. Soon reunited with Grandfather, she bore 3 more children: Mother, another uncle, and an aunt. Fate would gift to Mary's older, tough and smart uncle, attorney Korean Movsisian, the honor of pleading 2 cases in the U.S. Supreme Court, Washington, D.C. Mary's destiny the first 39 years of her life would be to wear the cloak of secrecy, an enigma, re: Mother's and Father's identity. This was kept under court seal in Montgomery County Circuit Court in Rockville, Maryland. Falsified, then issued over 25 months following her date of birth, this certificate now listed her parents as David D. and Eathel G. Mc Callum Letts. Lt. Commander Letts served in the Department of War, later renamed the Pentagon, from 1942-1948, in Washington, D.C. At age 38, Mary learned about her inherited gifts from each biological parent: membership in one of the oldest civilizations on Earth, the first to accept Christianity in 301 A.D., one which included the earliest settlers from the British Isles, soon to be owners of huge tobacco plantations in Maryland and Virginia. Mary's research revealed indirect family lines: 7 Mayflower passengers, 16 presidents, and 16 founding fathers, the signers of the Declaration of Independence, 2 direct-line Revolutionary War veterans, and William I, the Conquerer, of Normandy. Mary won a contest at Stoner School, Lansing Township, Michigan, 6th grade, in 1957. Only she knew the correct answer: 1066, the year William I invaded and won the Battle of Hastings. But, how did Mary solve the remaining mysteries of her secret origins? Why was she given up for adoption? In 1988, who had found 'the letter', enclosed inside the envelope well-hidden in a closet for 42 years? What did it reveal? Who had penned it? Then, who had put it there? How did this miracle-find result in the unlikely removal of the seal of Mary's adoption file from the Montgomery County Courthouse, Rockville, Maryland? A nuclear bomb level e-mail, 28 years after Mary's odyssey had begun, revealed a welll-guarded, family secret: the cat was out of the bag, another well-kept secret. On March 11, 2011, a message appeared on Mary's Web site from a man in his early eighties claiming to be her relative. Unfamiliar, yet having the Armenian, 'ian' suffix , this stranger had found Mary totally my accident, a bizarre coincidence. His miraculous message shook Mary to the core. He soon sent her a 70-year-old business card, yellowed, the very last one in existence. "Oh! Oh, my God!" Mary yelled. "Another one ...?"