Baba Katya's purse.

My Grandpa Gherman was a very kind and very learned man.  He was Russian and of course spoke Russian.  He also fluently spoke 5 oriental languages.  He later learned and spoke perfect English.  While Grandpa Gherman, or Deda, as we called him, was working in China and Mongolia in the diplomatic service, he also did work for the Japanese Emperor Hirohito.  He did diplomatic work, translation work, and other missions whose origins we don't really know because he kept them secret.
At that time Japan had been in Manchuria for a long time since 1905 or so.  They had established a protectorate and had a puppet king.  From there they started invading the rest of China (Northern and Eastern).  Finally, they were repulsed by the communists under Mao Tse Tung and the Nationalists under Chiang Kai Shek.  The work that he did for Emperor Hirohito was very valuable and very pleasing to the Emperor.  He wrote several letters of thanks and commendation to my grandpa and he also awarded him quite a large gold medal in the shape of the Japanese Sun.  My grandfather treasured that medal and later gave it to my brother.

My grandparents were traveling across the Gobi Desert to a destination that I do not know.  My grandmother had all of their important papers including the letters and the medal from Emperor Hirohito in her purse.  Their company stopped for the night in a Chinese inn.  They ate dinner and were relaxing for the evening.  Baba Katya was sitting on a rocking chair and was knitting as they were all chatting together.  Suddenly they heard a huge racket outside; horse hooves beating, loud shouting and yelling and the clanging of metal weapons.  Baba Katya told me she didn't know why, but she picked her purse up off the floor next to her, sat up a bit, and put the purse under her.  She was now sitting on the purse.  The horses stopped and the Chinese communist troop jumped off them and slammed open the doors and barged into the inn.  They searched the entire inn, every room, they looked through all the things and everyones baggage, and they bodily searched every person except for her.  While they were there, she just sat there with her knitting in her lap and watched and waited.  The men never touched her, never told her to get up and move, never said a work to her.  When they were satisfied, they left as quickly as they came.  When everyone was sure they were gone, my grandpa asked here where all of the documents and medal were.  She pulled her purse out from under her and said, "Here they are.  I was hiding them."  What a huge relief came over the entire company.  Had those papers been discovered and had that medal been seen, they would have all been killed.  I know my grandparents were being protected by God.