Hello,
I am a senior of Armenian descent, grew up in Egypt, left for Canada at age 18, then lived in two other countries. Now I reside in California.

The articles on TCKs were very moving to me. I felt emotions of sadness, anger and gladness for my TCK background. The articles were well written. Personally, I read all of them in three evenings. Thank you to each TCK contributor. I shall check the other articles online.

In his grace, 
Lucine Iskenderian

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Editor’s Note: In the letter below, Harriet uses MK for minister’s kid whereas we used it for missionary kid in our TCK issue. However, because of her experiences in other cultures, both in Scotland and among Mormons, the TCK mantle fits, especially considering the name of her autobiography. We are thankful the TCK issue was able to encourage her and many others.

As I read about MKs in your May/June issue, I had a hard time understanding it at first because I am also a MK (minister’s kid)! We lived in Edinburgh, Scotland 1950–1952 then spent the rest of my youth in Idaho and Wyoming. Both were unfamiliar cultures as I lived in the heart of Mormonism in Idaho Falls and then the WEST in Wyoming. I attended 13 schools in 17 years! No real sense of belonging or positive adult support other than my mother and her mother later in my life.

Your checklist in your first article accurately described my life that I never had defined until later in my 30s. I lived with my father, a mentally ill adult, and as a result the whole family had secondary PTSD because of my father’s experiences in WWII.

It would be interesting for you to also serve those of us who were minister’s kids here in the USA! I was “Perfect” until I got on my own, and then I would not even write what I did then until I got saved at the age of 37.

The Lord called me and my husband to live in Escalante, Utah in 1988. After 25 years of living in California, it was quite a shock when we moved here in 1991 from Menlo Park, California! However, the Lord prepared me to live in another heart of Mormonism in the West. Here at last I have become part of a very small community and have submitted to the Lord’s will for my life. I wrote my autobiography, Where did you grow up? at the age of 80. At the end of each chapter, I placed a scripture to show how the Lord carried us over all our years. (Find it on Amazon by Harriet Young Priska.)

Thanks for your thoughtfulness to TCKs and MKs. These services were not available as I was growing up.

Harriet Young Priska
Escalante, UT