1. The Lioness of Ethiopia

THE LIONESS of Ethiopia, Aida Desta, named after the heroine of Verdi's opera, had seen her world crumble.
Her beloved grandfather, the Emperor Haile Selassie I, had been murdered; her husband and children were scattered throughout the world; and she and her mother, Tenagne Worq, along with her sisters were about to leave the comfort of house detention in the now-nationalized Duke of Harar's palace for the Hell Hole known as the End of the World.
Born on April 8, 1927, Aida Desta was the daughter of Ras Desta Damtew, a Shoan nobleman, who had married then 14-year-old Princess Tenagne Worq in 1924. Besides Aida, they had three daughters -- Sebla, Sofia and Ruth -- and a son, Iskander Desta.
Aida's father was appointed governor of Sidamo in 1932 in succession to Birra Wolde Gabriel and founded its two towns, Yirgalem and Wondo. He was killed by the Italians on February 24, 1937 at age 39. Aida was only 10 at the time.
Her mother would later marry Ras Andargatchew Messai, who was one of the fortunate ones, who had survived the killing spree of the fleeing Imperial Bodyguard in the Palace's Green Salon in 1960. Aida's father-in-law, Ras Seyum, had been executed in the same aborted coup.
The beautiful princess would attend Clarendon in north Wales and Cambridge University in England and then marry the respected and down-to-earth Mengesha Seyum. They would have seven children -- Rebecca, Michael, John, Seyum, Jalyce, Menen and Prince Stephen.
It had been an idyllic lifestyle.
After a number of postings in Arussi and Sidamo, Stephen's father, Mengesha Seyum, would become the minister of public works and communications and be based in Addis, where they all lived in the rambling Palace complex, next to the Emperor's Jubilee Palace, known as Little Ghebbi, and just down the street from Big Ghebbi -- Menelik's Grand Palace.
Jubilee, the grayish stone mansion, was the jewel also known as Princes' Paradise, and was next to the joint homes of Mengesha Seyum and his father, Ras Seyum, who was governor-general of Tigre with a palace in the province's capital of Makale.
While the Mengesha Seyums lived in Addis, they were in close contact with Emperor Haile Selassie and Empress Menen; sharing nightly visits when they would watch newsreels of world events.
Stephen's mother, Aida, besides raising her children, had the privilege of travelling with the Emperor to far-off places such as Brazil in 1960. However, that state visit was a time of turmoil, as the Imperial Bodyguard revolted. She worried about her children's safety. Her husband, as minister of public works and communications was on a road-building project in Jimma, at the time.

Stephen Mengesha: My father was a hands-on type of personality and in construction work on roads, he would be a do-it-yourselfer. He'd just jump on a bulldozer or grader, not to be a showoff or anything, but he'd just do it and stay on the job three or four months until the road was completed.

In early 1963, Aida Desta suffered a brain aneurysm. Her grandfather, the Emperor, flew to Zurich, Switzerland to be with her and then made arrangements to have her flown to the United States for medical treatment with the assistance of President John F. Kennedy.
She recovered.
In 1974 with the military revolutionaries closing in on the Emperor in Addis, Stephen's mother made a monumental decision in the Palace in Makale, where her husband was governor general.
It was a choice of her either staying with her husband, Mengesha Seyum, and trying to escape to The Sudan with their two young children, Menen and Seyum, or head for Addis to be with her mother and three sisters and her grandfather.
Her other children, Michael, Rebecca, John, Jalyce, were in various locations throughout the world. Stephen was completing his university studies in Canada.
Mengesha Seyum and son, Seyum, made a dramatic escape through Eritrea and into The Sudan where the former Tigrean GG would eventually even escape a would-be-assassin's bullet.
Meanwhile, Aida Desta arrived in Addis on a military plane. The Derg had expected it to contain Tigre's governor-general, but when Stephen's mother, who had been roughed up by a military woman during the flight, looked out onto the tarmac to see an array of military hardware, including tanks and jeeps, he exclaimed: "The lion has gone out of his cage. He has escaped you and you're looking at the lioness. I won't bite you."