Introduction
This is a story of God's faithfulness to the Cook family during the first months of World War IL My mother, Frances, was born in China to missionary parents and her father died when she was six months old. Her mother stayed on in China and Mum had her education through high school there then came to the United States for a baccalaureate degree at Wooster College in Ohio and then a master's at Columbia University. She then sailed back to China to rejoin her mother and on the ship from Shanghai to Chefoo in Northern China a Scottish merchant marine officer, named Archibald Cook, invited her to dinner at the officers' table. He had left Greenock, just outside Glasgow, Scotland, when he was 14. His father had died and in order to support his mother and siblings he went to sea and wound up in China sailing for the China Navigation Company. They fell in love and were married a year later in Shanghai where Calvin and Luther, the first two children, were born. Dad was then transferred to Hong Kong where he eventually became the captain of the Fat Shan, which went from Hong Kong to Canton. In Hong Kong four other children were born-Athene, I, Celene, and Van Dyke. Six hours after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor they attacked Hong Kong. Dad had sailed the day before and was immediately captured by the Japanese in Canton and Calvin, Luther, and Athene were with Grandma Wight at the boarding school at Chefoo and were also captured. This is the background to the amazing story of God's care and provision to each one of us as told by my mother and father. I have also included a wonderful eulogy written by my brother, Calvin, along with a beautiful sketch of Mum done by Calvin's wife, Patricia, as well as some closing thoughts by Calvin on Dad. Clyde Cook La Mirada, California November 2002 iii
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