Condolences Ara B and Family

[Arpa]

Condolences to Ara B and Family.

RIP Araxi

See the rest here;

http://www.armenianweekly.com/2010/02/25/apigian-kessel-remembering-araxi-baliozian-1914-2010/

Apigian-Kessel: Remembering Araxi Baliozian (1914-2010)

By: Betty Apigian-Kessel

Araxi Baliozian passed away during the early morning hours of Jan. 28 at her home in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, one week short of her 96th birthday. She was surrounded by her devoted daughter, Dirouhi, and well-known diasporan writer, son Ara Baliozian. She was their beacon of love and strength to the very end.

Ara describes the mother-daughter relationship: “They were like Siamese twins, always together.”

The love of Araxi’s son can be summed up by his own words: “The love of children goes much deeper than their identity. Even the word ‘mother’ makes me cry, but when I cry I feel closer to her, I feel connected.”

Araxi was born in Adana. Her father was murdered by the Turks but her mother survived the genocide. Ara continues, “Mother did not remember the massacres because she was only a baby when it happened.”

Araxi and her sister Vartouhi were raised in a French orphanage in Beirut where the nuns trained her as a nurse. A woman of high intelligence, Araxi could read and write Armenian fluently as well as French. She also learned to speak Greek, Turkish, and English. It was no wonder her children, too, developed into highly educated people.

At the age of 19, Araxi went to Greece to wed Avedis Baliozian, and this is where Dirouhi and Ara were born. Interestingly enough, Avedis originally came from Sivrihisar, the birthplace of Nasreddin Khoja.

Ara describes his mother as a very religious person, who at one time sang in church choirs. “We were brought up as Catholics but when we moved to Canada in 1956, we attended Armenian Church.”

That is where I first met the attractive Araxi and Dirouhi, at an after church coffee hour at the Cambridge, Ontario Armenian church.

Misfortune struck the Baliozian family while in Greece. At the beginning of World War II, German bombs demolished Avedis’s grocery store and their house, necessitating their move to the suburb of Dourghouti, a mile from the center of Athens where three Armenian churches—Catholic, Orthodox, and Protesant—were located.

Says Ara, “Father was too busy trying to survive World War II, the German occupation of Greece, ….

[ED]

My Condolences Ara, May she rest in peace

[Zartonk]

Ցավաքցուն եմ հարգելի Արա

[Louise Kiffer]

Recevez mes sincères condoléances, cher Ara. Ce n'est pas parce qu'une personne est très âgée qu'on a moins de chagrin.

Louise

[MosJan]

հարգելի Արա Ցավաքցուն եմ բարեկամ

[Armat]

հարգելի Արա Ցավաքցուն եմ բարեկամ

[ara baliozian]

many thanks to all my friends on this forum.

i am deeply grateful for your willingness to share my grief.