Meet the Author
Sylvia Churchill was born in Tientsin (Tianjin), China, in a prestigious home built by her grandfather, Harry Churchill, Vice Consul of Foochow. Her father also lived in China and was a businessman. In 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and rounded up foreign nationals, putting them into concentration camps. Sylvia and her family spent three years in Weihsien Camp, where they learned firsthand how harsh their Japanese overseers would be. But they also learned what was important in life and to persevere despite the hardships of Weihsien and repatriation to a new country.
At war’s end, the Churchills sailed to America and settled in Cape Cod. Sylvia attended Massachusetts General Hospital School of Nursing and married James Rex Prince, after graduating in 1956. They lived in Richmond for three years, then moved to Kilmarnock, Virginia, where they raised their five children. Sylvia worked as a nurse for Doctor Broaddus Gravatt and at Rappahannock General Hospital, while Jim covered the county as the optometrist.
