Mary Ornazian Derderian
This story of my life begins since the time of World War I in 1915. I was born in the village of Govdoon, Armenia in the year 1910. My mother's name was Antarum, my father's name was Gabriel, two sisters Ovsanna and Elizabeth and a brother Nishan, all of whom I did not know. I remember only a few things from my childhood. I remember the black goats that I would go to visit once in awhile and that there were beehives where I unfortunately got bitten.The village in which I resided was massacred in 1915. I was then five years old. I happened to be with a crowd of women and children. We walked until we came to a body of water. This area, my mother later told me was where she had to place her baby daughter for lack of food as the baby was dying.
I was left behind near this area of water. I laid down for a rest as I was tired and hungry. When I got back on my feet and looked around for the crowd they had disappeared, Sometime later a man with his donkey happened to come by. He picked me up and put me on his donkey. This man who was a Kurd brought me to his house. He was a farmer with bags of garlic to be taken to the market. A few days later he gave me to a friend. I temporarily lost my eyesight. I don't remember very much about this occurrence except that I was blindfolded for quite awhile. Every afternoon I took food to the workers on a donkey. I stayed and took care of their cattle. Toward dusk we came home with plenty of vegetables. I was barefooted and as I walked on roots of wheat I had to be careful not to get splinters on the soles of my feet. I happened to pull carrots from the ground and they were as sweet as sugar. I would ground wheat in stone. I would grind it and make bulghur out of it. I have milked cows and brought food from the fields for the cows.
One day the missionaries were sending for me but I hid myself so the would not find me. This was in the summertime. The woman who later found me gave me a slap on my left ear because she was searching for me and I wasn't around. The Kurds did not want to give me up so this lady punished them. She put me in an orphanage. This lady came to see me and brought fruit to me. The next day I took the train and arrived in Aleppo. From there I was put in an Armenian orphanage. As time passed on my mother came to the orphanage but I was sick. She lifted the blanket and saw me. She took me out of there. From there we went to the city of Aintab. As this all happened during World War 1 the planes were soaring over our heads as we walked along from one place to another. My mother and I went to Beirut where my mother took care of the sick lady of the house. That's where I first saw a banana and fig trees. From Beirut we went to Constantinople. We had a small photograph taken for our passport. We sailed away from here to America.
The steamship took 8 weeks to get to America. I was seasick. They always fed us spaghetti on the ship. The name of the ship was King Alexander. It was a Greek ship. We arrived in America on March 2, 1921. We came into the New York port. From there we went to a clean restaurant, which was ready for us and after that they took us to a movie. We stayed a couple of days at a friend's house. Then we got on a train and came to Providence, Rhode Island. My mother re-married. I went to three schools, Chalkstone Avenue (special room where they taught foreigners English). I went to Armenian School and I attended one and one-half years of high school. I learned sewing and cooking with other subjects. I worked in a jewelry shop doing foot press work and soldering. I married Arshag Derderian on July 26, 1931.