As a young girl, Cynthia Tenorio Terlaje prayed for safety in the darkness of war. Now, at 90 years old, she shares her story of survival - a child rescued by a stranger - until a story shared around a table at a Yona fiesta changed everything. 

Terlaje was only around 7 years old at the time of the Japanese occupation of Guam. She recalls certain memories, saying, "At the beginning it was kind of scary, I didn't know what was going on, I was a young child and whatever the parents tell us what to do, we do it.

"At the beginning, when the bombs started, the second time in 1944, my parents and everyone all headed up to Agana Heights-Tutujan, and then we headed towards alubugung, and so many places...and then they told us to go to Manenggon and we were told how there will be a lot of Chamorros there staying for safety. My father started to dig a bokkonogo for us to stay...we stayed there for I don't know how long."

Terlaje fell incredibly ill, recalling, "We were all hungry, there's no food. we had diarrhea, malnutrition, and everything. someone started to yell that the japanese were coming around here. and they're looking for us."

Especially her father, Calisto Tenorio. "He was the manager for the cohachu- the commissary for the military. they were looking for him because he didn't lock the commissary because he told the people, whatever you need take it, because it's war," she said.

Upon arriving at Manenggon, she says everything was chaos. But there was an overpowering  faith. "My mother was always praying and telling us to say something," she said.

To escape the Japanese, they needed to move further up and save themselves but Terlaje, was still gravely sick and her parents still had other children to take care of and needed to be carried.

Her parents making a difficult and a heart wrenching decision. "With my situation, I wouldn't have made it - so they just left me over there and took off with the rest of the people. I didn't know anything about it until until later on, a gentleman came inside, who is with you? He says-do not be afraid, I am going to take care of you....and we walked in the jungle, there were dead bodies...I don't know how I did it, I guess God just helped me, because I was a child," she said.

On the back of that courageous man, they made it to safety in Hagat. She recalls a couple days later, she was reunited with her family who came out of the jungle. "I was in my little tent getting better, and I was trying to see out of all those people, if I recognize any of them. I finally saw my sister and stood up and yelling her name and she was telling my mom- there's Cynthia, there's Cynthia! And they all came running towards me. and we got reunited right there," she said.

Her family would situate themselves in Agana Heights and over the years, she would go to school and eventually meet her future husband. He would join the Army and be deployed to the Korean War. They got married when he returned and would move to England.

35 years later, back on island, Cynthia and her husband were at a fiesta in the village of Yona hosted by the Terlaje family. "We had been going there for a while, the terlaje family has the novena so we as a fishermen family, we always provided the seafood for the occasion," she said.

She was asked to sit down and listen as many were sharing their stories about World War II. She then asked her Uncle Frank, as she remembered, "Hafa Uncle Frank, what's your story? He used to play accordion for manamko.he put his accordion down."

And his story was one that would change her forever. "He was like this and was like ai adai, all I wanted to do before I die is find the girl that I picked up in the bokkongo. Whether she is still alive, married, off-island or if she joined the novice. My husband was holding me and I said do you know what is her last name? He's like I think it's Tenorio. He mentioned Calisto, that's my father's name. Once he said that, my husband let me go, I ran and sat on his lap and I placed  my hands on his face and said take a good look at this face,  this is the girl you saved...I wound't be here without you I won't be here today. I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you now," she said.

And Terlaje says even at 90 years old, the darkest chapter in Guam's history still lingers. "Even when i do my rosary, or talking to my husband, it comes back. it doesn't go away. it's here all the time," she said.

And at 90 years old, Terlaje says the best thing she can do right now, is go to mass daily and pray for peace.  "God is with me all the time and with that guardian angel,without him, I would not be here today and his name is Francisco Terlaje, Familian Pedo," she said.