HAPPY REUNION: Dennis Fry and Fu Enlin meet in China (WANG GUANGXIANG)

On November 5, 2009, American Dennis Fry bid farewell to his Chinese cousin Fu Enlin and her husband at Shanghai Airport. Holding her hands tightly in his and with tears in his eyes, Fry promised her that he would see her again. His trip to Nantong, east China's Jiangsu Province, unraveled an unexpected piece of history.

A mother's wish

One December day in 1958, Nancy Fry was lying in bed with a fatal illness in her suburban home in the U.S. city of Indianapolis. She was in her late 60s and was never married. During the last moments of her life, she told her nephew Dennis about her life in Nantong more than 20 years ago. She worked there for many years, educating medical workers and treating wounded Chinese who had fallen under Japanese gunfire. She had adopted a baby Chinese girl who she called Enlin Fry. Nancy asked Dennis to look for her Chinese daughter.

"Tell her that Mom always loves her, and will always love her, even in heaven," she said.

On August 25, 2009, the Nantong-based Jianghai Evening News received a phone call from Cheng Zheng, who was working in the Tianjin office of a U.S. company. Cheng said that he was looking for Fu Enlin on behalf of Dennis Fry and provided the paper with an address—the only clue they had.

When reporters went to the address, they found a teahouse. They asked senior citizens about Fu in the crowded neighborhood around the address, but learned of no new information. Later, an old editor remembered that he had read an article published in the evening news years before that commemorated an American mother. They fumbled through dusty papers and finally found the article, which was written by Fu, and published on September 24, 1995. But the author's current contact information still could not be found.

The article told the touching story of an American mother and her adopted Chinese daughter during China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. The story said that near Nantong's Haier Alley there was a famous Christian hospital whose head nurse was a woman named Nancy Fry, then about 50 years old. She was deeply loved by residents for her excellent medical expertise and for treating people equally. People nicknamed her Miss Fu. Shortly after the start of Japanese aggression in 1937, someone brought a baby girl to Nancy and begged her to adopt the poor child. A pious Christian, Nancy adopted her, gave her the Chinese name of Fu Enlin and nicknamed her Tootsie. During the following four years, Nancy devoted her love to her daughter. She planned to bring the girl back to the United States when she reached school age.