without any contact with the outside world, I did not know that the Communists had taken Manchuria and were now moving towards Beijing and Tianjin. Many students and their amilies escaped to Taiwan and Hong Kong. There were no more classes. We spent our time reading English books of our choice. More and more girls left the school as the Communist armies came nearer. Eventually, I was the only student left there. I spent every Sunday and every holiday alone in the school, including Christmas and New Year. The nuns did not know what to do with me. I remember that Christmas, sitting in the enormous dining room, eating Christmas dinner by myself. On 31 January 1949, the Communists marched into Beijing without firing a shot. Tianjin was taken at about the same time. My sister Lydia was living in Tianjin with her husband Samuel and his parents during the time I was at school there. They never