The Gentlemen of Claflin School

And speaking of David Seeley (Marash Girl, Sunday, May 20, 2016) . . .  in Marash Girl's elementary school days, the favorite sport of the boys was NOT dipping the girls' pigtails into the inkwell of the desk behind them, but rather pulling the chair AWAY from the girl who was about to sit down, and down she did sit, but not on the chair . . .!  It's amazing that the girls of  Claflin School survived the missing of all those chairs as, daily, they landed on the floor -- kerplunk!

The Little Doll on the Top Shelf at the Top of the Stairs

Auntie Zarouhi. No, that was her sister.  It was Ashod's older sister, Auntie Azadouhi.  She lived with her parents and brother and sister on the third floor in a darkened apartment in West Newton, the older daughter of Uncle Arakel (Sarkis was his middle name, as he was named after his father, Rev. Sarkis Bilezikian, the first Protestant minister in Marash); Uncle Arakel was a younger brother of Marash Girl's Grandpa Moses.

Auntie Azadouhi was so pretty, so sweet, so nice. Dark curly hair, light skin, a beautiful smile. Whenever we went to her house, she let us play with her pretty little doll, the doll she always kept on the top shelf in the closet at the top of the long flight of stairs leading to their apartment.  During one Sunday's visit, Marash Girl had such a hard time parting with that doll that she begged Auntie Azadouhi to let her take the doll home (her home, which was one mile away in Newtonville).

"But," replied Auntie Azadouhi, "if you take the doll home, it will never be here for you to play with when you come to visit!"

A MISS IS AS GOOD AS A MILE!

"A miss is as good as a mile!"  Ever heard that expression?  Marash Girl first heard it in fourth grade when David Seeley, the baseball star of Claflin School, called a strike on one of his classmates, who cried out, "But I just missed that one!"  David Seeley called out, "A miss is as good as a mile."

Marash Girl remembered David Seeley's proclamation several years ago, when, during the Brew Fest held yearly on the shores of the Connecticut River at the Holyoke Canoe Club, Marash Girl was chatting with a group of family and friends when suddenly she saw a look of horror spread across their faces.  What could it be?  Had she forgotten to get dressed that morning?  No.  Had she said something inappropriate? Not that she could recall . . .

"Turn around," they cried out.

Marash Girl did so, and there  behind her lay a limb, a huge limb, that moments before, had  fallen off of the oak tree under which she was standing,  a limb that had just missed Marash Girl.  If it weren't for that miss, Marash Girl would not be writing today; but, then, as David Seeley proclaimed many years ago, "A miss is as good as a mile!"

Genetically Engineered Yogurt?

Did you know that General Mills makes YOPLAIT Yogurt?  And did you know that Yoplait Yogurt is "partially produced with genetic engineering"? 

Learn more at Ask.GeneralMills.com and let them know your thoughts! 

And while you're at it, ask them about another ingredient in Yoplait:                               Vitamin A Acetate . . . 

You may be alarmed at what you learn!

Read the back of your yogurt container . . . see for yourself what's in that yogurt!

Or look for  CHOBANI Greek Yogurt which proudly states on its packaging that it contains only natural, non-GMO ingredients.

Love Salmon? Read This Warning from the Center for Food Safety

First farm raised salmon painted pink (see Marash Girl: marashgirl.blogspot.com/2016/02/farm-raised-salmon-painted-pink.html )

Now this misguided approach to food intended for human consumption reprinted below -- help keep our food sources safe from potentially harmful human intervention . . . a warning from the Center for Food Safety:

As you know, CFS has recently filed a lawsuit challenging the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the first ever genetically engineered (GE) animal intended for human consumption, a genetically engineered salmon. The GE salmon is engineered to grow faster than conventional salmon with genetic material from an ocean eel pout.  GE salmon that escape containment could harm critically endangered salmon populations by interbreeding or competing with them for food. The manufacturer, AquaBounty, has said it intends to grow the GE salmon in the U.S. and at locations around the world, but currently its commercialization facilities are at two sites, on Prince Edward Island in Canada and in Panama.As part of our important lawsuit, we are looking for CFS members directly affected by FDA’s approval of GE salmon. Specifically, we are looking to hear from members who meet one or more of the following criteria:  (1)    you are an outdoor or nature enthusiast in the Northeastern U.S. who is concerned about the potential harm to wild Atlantic salmon from GE salmon; (2)    you fish and utilize the Atlantic ocean coastal areas or Gulf of Maine waters, either commercially or recreationally, and are concerned about the impacts of GE salmon on your livelihood or recreational use;  (3)    you work in fishing-related industries, and are concerned about the impacts of GE salmon on your livelihood; or (4)    you have significant economic or environmental interests in the survival and successful recovery of wild Atlantic salmon fisheries, and are concerned about the impacts of GE salmon on your interests.        If you meet any of the above mentioned criteria, your experiences and concerns may be critical to the success of CFS’s fight to stop GE salmon. Please email alerts@centerforfoodsafety.org. In your response, please tell us: (1) how you fit the above-mentioned criteria and your specific concerns regarding the GE salmon; (2) your city and state of residence.  Thank you, Center for Food Safety

Help! Marash Girl has contracted Lyme Disease!

Ah, Spring!  When a young tick's fancy turns to . . . . 

Non-chemical gardening?

Recently, Marash Girl looked out of her back window to see the gardener in the neighbor's yard spraying (one can imagine what) towards her house. Could he be spraying water on grass in the rain? No . . . couldn't be .  She tried calling her neighbor, but no answer.  So she sent an email: "I noticed that your gardener was spraying your lawn with what appeared to be weedkiller, and I was concerned for many reasons, one of which was that, because the gardener was walking towards our house as he sprayed, I feared that the poison may inadvertently be blown by the winds and rains in our direction. . . Help!"

My neighbor answered me as follows:  "The gardener was spraying a mix of fertilizer and what is called 'pre-emergent crab grass controller'.  One of the reasons we use this particular company is that they try to be as non-chemical/green as possible.  I will forward your letter to them to learn exactly what was being used and what hazards, if any, it poses.  I know that it dries in a few hours and since it was raining when it was being sprayed, probably went right down into the soil." 

Needless to say, Marash Girl has not heard back from the neighbor in question (a good friend, by the way) regarding the "fertilizer" in question!

If any of you have a lawn, and have experienced crab grass, you'll be aware that the only "pre-emergent crab grass controller" that works is, plain and simple, poison. And this, from a company that "tries to be as non-chemical" as possible . . .  

Marash Girl grew up hand-pulling crab grass from the lawn, but finally convinced her father that there was nothing wrong with crab grass; it grew; it didn't need fertilizer; it was green some of the time . . . but green at the expense of poisoning the earth is not a choice.

Feeling the Force

Have you ever tried to get a roomful of 10 year old boys to be still?  Lorig did!  They'll do anything for Star Wars.  So this is how it happened.  18 ten year old boys had to sit, stand or lay absolutely still for one minute.  Sounds easy, right?  Wrong.  You try it, and you're older than 10.  No twitching, no smiling, no blinking, no scratching an itch.  One person moves the slightest, and the effort has to begin anew for all 18 boys. Could they do it?  Yes, they did!  Because of Star Wars, because they were "feeling the force", they could be still for a full minute! (Sorry, but Marash Girl has no picture to prove it. . . you'll just have to take her word for it!)

A Star Wars Birthday Party in Takoma Park, Maryland: Happy Birthday, Raffi!

Preparing for the Party!

Star Wars Light Sabers

Light Sabers in the Making

 

Putting the finishing touches on the Trash Compactor Cake

Star Wars Trash Compactor Cake created by Lorig

Warring Light Sabers

The "trashed" Trash Compactor!

IN SEARCH OF STRING?

In search of string?  Have you checked out your string drawer lately?  Nothing there?  Search everywhere?  Shops as well?  No?  What happened to the plethora of string we used to have around our houses?  What happened to all that string  with which Yester, Marash Girl's grandmother, would tie her packages before mailing them to Massachusetts from her home in Los Angeles, California?

Years ago, Marash Girl read a collection of short essays entitled, 

Pieces of StringToo Short to Save: A Memoir About Life, Journalism and Foreign Service written by Bob Chancellor, the title drawn from the box of string that the author had found in his grandmother's house, a box on which was written,  "Pieces of String Too Short To Save".  The book came to mind when, recently, Marash Girl's daughter called her, desperate to find string to hang the piñata she had made for Raffi's 10th birthday party.  She had had no problem finding the materials with which to make the piñata, but when it came to hanging the piñata, there was no store within miles of her home that carried such an old-fashioned item as string.  Marash Girl assured her that there was much string in the string drawer in her Newton kitchen, or in the boot of her automobile, or in the box down the cellar, but when she went to find the string, there was none to be found . . . Lucky for Marash Girl, though, there was a Walgreen's around the corner, a Walgreen's that, after much hunting, came up with a small but pricey package of string with which to hang the piñata, string which traveled yesterday from Massachusetts all the way to Maryland, via plane, string which ultimately made 20 10 year old boys and Raffi very happy on Raffi's 10th birthday.  Happy Birthday, Raffi!

Why are you making your cakes from scratch?

Recently, tasting Nisha's banana cake, I was reminded of the delicious, unmatched banana cakes that Grandma Jennie used to make from scratch.  She had the magic touch, whether she was following a recipe or not.  And yet, her mother, Great Grandma Yester Bosnian Vartanian, born in Aintab,   a superb cook and pastry maker, asked Grandma Jennie (and Marash Girl witnessed this), "Why are you wasting your time making cakes from scratch? You should be using a cake mix!"

The Ultimate in Hands-Off Food Preparation: An Egg Scrambler!

Back to the kitchen . . . For those of you pacifists who don't wish to beat anything, much less an egg, there's a solution:  the latest in "work saving devices" . . . The Egg Scrambler!

Have you seen it on supermarket shelves yet? One note of caution -- once the egg is scrambled inside of the eggshell, you still have to know how to crack the egg without any eggshell bits falling into the already scrambled egg . . . eggshell bits that will be far more difficult to detect because you have already scrambled the egg inside of the shell.  (For hints on how to remove eggshell bits from the already dropped egg, see Marash Girl, June 5, 2012, "It Takes One to Know One, or How to Catch a Bit of Eggshell with Another Egg Shell".)

MEN CAN COOK: Greater Springfield's fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity

MEN CAN COOK: Greater Springfield's fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity chaired by Karoun Charkoudian

Folks from the "West Coast" of Massachusetts as well as from the West Coast of the United States enjoyed "tipping" the waiter at the hilarious Habitat for Humanity Fundraiser on the evening of May 2 in the Elks Hall in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Above: Supporting Greater Springfield's Habitat for Humanity

The Coat That Was Too Beautiful To Burn

                                   Above:  The German Hospital in Marash - Photo from Facebook

Seeing the photo above on Facebook brings to mind 

the following true tale 

of an atrocity which occurred in 1915.

There was a day when Marta Bilezikjian, the mother-in-law of Yepros, the mother of Moses Bilezikjian, went to the marketplace in Marash, never to return.  For months the family knew nothing . . . until one day, young Yepros,  Peter's mother, was caring for patients in the German Hospital when she spied her mother-in-law's coat on the bed a wounded Turkish soldier.  "What a beautiful coat," she commented in perfect Turkish, her native tongue; "Where did you get it?"  Laughing, he answered,  (in Turkish, of course, not realizing Yepros was Armenian), "I took it off of an old giavour (infidel) woman who came to the ovens to bake bread. We threw her into the ovens, but before we threw her into the ovens, we took her coat -- it was too beautiful to burn."

Above: Workers at the German Hospital in Marash, circa 1915

Below, "View from the rear of the German Hospital ..." in Marash, circa 1915

She Taught Them Never To Beg

Between 1915 and 1920, during World War I, Grandma Yepros, an Armenian in war-torn Marash, Ottoman Empire, was left to fend for herself, her sister, and four children, her husband Moses having been stranded in the United States, unable to return to Marash to protect his family because of the war.  Yepros worked in the German Hospital, and her pay, as her son Peter used to tell it, was one loaf of bread a day. The family would share that loaf of bread, as Yepros would take one bite and say, "I'm not hungry."   It was "not by bread alone" that she and her family survived, but by faith and hard work and stubbornness, the stubbornness not to give up.  She forbid her children to go into the missionary "soup" line; she said she would rather have them learn to live with hunger than learn to beg.  (Marash Girl's father for the rest of his life claimed he never felt hunger, even when he hadn't eaten for a full day).

Marash Martha, Poison Ivy, and Ronnie Raphaelian

On a beautiful day last week, Marash Girl went walking in Nahanton Park -- the park that was once the site of Newton's Poor Farm -- and there along the wooded paths she saw the fresh tender shoots of  -- you guessed it -- poison ivy!  Yes, she recognized poison ivy, and it recognized her, so she made a point of staying well away (inches, that is, as the path was a narrow one) from the soon to be hearty ivy plants.  But that close a call with poison ivy (and she's still not sure she missed rubbing against it), brought to mind the famous interchange between Marash Martha, Ronnie Raphaelian, and his football.

Here's the story, and it's a true one!

The Armenian Memorial Church held it's annual picnic once a year (yes, once a year -- thats what annual means, right?) at Waverley Oaks in Belmont, Massachusetts, and although Marash Girl's and Marash Martha's family did not attend that church (they attended the church behind that church, the one on Arlington Street in Watertown), they always attended the Armenian Memorial Church picnic in Waverley Oaks.  The one picnic that remains in Marash Girl's memory to this day is the picnic to which Ronnie Raphaelian brought his football.  Mistake!  All the kids were playing catch with Ronnie and his football, but when Marash Martha got the football, instead of throwing the football back to Ronnie as she was expected to do, she threw the football directly (and deliberately) into a patch of poison ivy.  It was Ronnie's football, and if he wanted it, he would have to go into the poison ivy patch to get it.  And he did.  The conclusion to this story?  No, the conclusion is not that Ronnie went in after the football and thus contracted a horrific case of poison ivy.  That's not the conclusion to this tale, although Ronnie DID go into the poison ivy patch and DID contract a horrific case of poison ivy.  The conclusion, then? When Marash Martha heard that Ronnie was down with poison ivy, she immediately sent him a card -- not a get well card, but rather  a sympathy card!

A Public Apology from Marash Girl to Jack Bedigian

Dear Jack Bedigian, 

It has been many years, in fact, 68 to be exact, that Marash Girl has waited to make this apology.  Do you remember when your sister got married?  (Your oldest sister, was it?)  Do you remember coming to school in third grade, so happy, so excited that your sister had gotten married, proud that all of the members of your family had henna on their little fingers? You were so joyful as your friends circled around you to learn the story behind your henna-ed little finger.  And Marash Girl, thinking she was so smart, had to show off by exclaiming, "No such thing! I'm Armenian and we never put henna on our fingers when folks get married."  What Marash Girl did not know was that the traditions of Kharpert (where Jack's family is from) and Marash (where, obviously, Marash Girl's family is from) were very different.  And for sure, the traditions of the Armenian Apostolic Armenians were very different from those of the Protestant Armenians.  But Marash Girl, thinking all Armenians were alike,  had to "pooh-pooh" Jack's moment in glory.  To this day she regrets the fact, and finally, yesterday evening, she picked up the telephone and called Jack, having not spoken to him in more than half a century. He was so forgiving -- in fact, he did not remember the incident.  He said, "Oh, that must have been when my oldest sister got married. . . Don't worry about it.  It's fine."  But Marash Girl still rues the day -- all these many years later -- that she dared to be so rude and so wrong!

More on Tarkhana in Marash

On Sunday, January 18, 2015, Marash Girl wrote a blog on Marash Boy's mother Azniv's preparation of tarkhana in Springfield, Massachusetts.  Azniv learned the skill in Marash and may very well be one of the women in the photo below, a photo which Marash Girl found on Yusuf Koleli's post on Facebook, the photo credited  to Stanley Kerr's THE LIONS OF MARASH.

Below:  Osmanlı döneminde 1918-1919 yıllarında tarhana yapımını gösteren Stenley Kerr'in çekmiş olduğu fotoğrafı Reddit ağında(https://www.reddit.com/r/colorizationrequests) renklendirme talebinde bulunmuştum. Böyle bir iş çıkmış ortaya. (translation below).

Thanks to Yusuf Koleli for the above photo posted on Facebook. He writes the following: Osmanlı döneminde 1918-1919 yıllarında tarhana yapımını gösteren Stenley Kerr'in çekmiş olduğu fotoğrafı Reddit ağında (https://www.reddit.com/r/colorizationrequests) renklendirme talebinde bulunmuştum. Böyle bir iş çıkmış ortaya.  (Rough Translation: 1918-1919 years of the Ottoman period - Tarhana making from Stanley Kerr's photo.)

As they had been forced to leave their homes and their possessions (including their clothes -- the clothes in this photo, probably given to them by the missionaries suggest that the photo is taken outside of an orphanage), the Armenians in the above photo were no longer able to make tarkhana on the flat rooftops of their houses, as was traditional in Marash.  "Thanks" to the Ottoman government, only through the above photo did many of the Armenians pictured above "survive" the years 1918-1919 in Marash.

Let's Go Climb A Tree!

    Let's Go Climb A Tree . . . . Farlow Park, Newton Corner, Massachusetts      Photo by Marash Girl

Navaho in Harvard Square

Marash Girl has been waiting a very long time, carrying this story in her heart, and now it must appear in print.  The incident related below occurred in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts, early in the 1960's.

Marash Girl and her good friend and classmate at Harvard University (his name omitted to protect the innocent) were walking through Harvard Square late one afternoon when a stranger approached them and asked Marash Girl's friend (who was  a member of the Navajo Nation), "What are you anyway? An Eskimo?"

And the taunts did not stop there.  When they entered the Harvard Square package store to buy a bottle of wine for their friend's 21st birthday, the vendor refused to sell to them, refused with the following statement:  "We don't sell firewater to Redskins!"

A cruel lesson for young Marash Girl and her friend to have to face early on in life, a lesson never to be forgotten.

Abba, Abba . . .

And the preacher said, "Just as Jesus called unto his Father, 'Abba', we too can call on Him:  'Abba, Abba'."

And from the back row of the church, a toddler, a little boy, just learning to speak, called out, "Abba, Abba".

". . . . And a little child shall lead them!"

POLITICS, WATERTOWN STYLE

                                              Politics along Mt. Auburn Street         Photo by Marash Girl

Take the Name of Jesus With You

Was I reading that sign correctly?  Or was it just that it was Sunday morning?  Did the Starbucks sign maker know what s/he was doing when s/he created the sign you see at the left?  Was it really a takeoff on one of Marash Girl's favorite hymns?  Whatever the intention of the sign maker, Marash Girl was taken aback and would like to counter by singing (sing along with her if you know) the old hymn

              TAKE THE NAME OF JESUS WITH YOU!

1	Take the name of Jesus with you, Child of sorrow and of woe; It will joy and comfort give you, Take it then where’er you go.
	Precious name! Oh, how sweet! Hope of earth and joy of heav’n; Precious name! Oh, how sweet!   Hope of earth and joy of heav’n.
2	Take the name of Jesus ever, As a shield from every snare. If temptations round you gather, Breathe that holy name in prayer.
3	Oh, the precious name of Jesus, How it thrills our souls with joy; All the favor of the Father In this name we may enjoy.
4	At the name of Jesus bowing, Falling prostrate at His feet, Claim His vict’ry over evil And the enemy defeat. https://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/670

Happy Mother's Day! ՇՆՈՐՀԱՒՈՐ ՄԱՅՐԵՐՈՒ ՕՐ

When Marash Girl thinks of happy mothers (a slight twist on the meaning of the day), she remembers  her mother who was always happy (except when we were mean little kids), always cheery, never a negative word to say about anybody, always ready to lend a helping hand.  That was Marash Girl's mother, Lucille Mae ("Jennie") Vartanian Bilezikian.  She loved her children,   she loved her husband, she loved her neighbors, she even lent a helping hand to strangers.  Perhaps that was why she was always happy.  And her husband, Peter Bilezikian,  adored his "Jennie with the Light Brown Hair"!

N.B.  Oh, and by the way, Jennie's parents were not from Marash!  They were from Aintab!!!!

Marina Kavlakian plays Sabre Dance at Hye Cafe

Watertown: Marina Kavlakian playing Khachaturian's Sabre Dance at Hye Cafe yesterday evening.   Photo by Marash Girl

                                                                                                                                                 

Marina Kavlakian's sterling performance of Khachaturian's Sabre Dance yesterday evening at Hye Cafe in Watertown, Massachusetts, brought to mind the days Marash Girl's father would take Marash Girl to the Watertown Marashtsi gatherings to entertain the assembled.  The Marashtsi crowd became silent as Marash Girl, age 9, approached the piano on stage and announced the name of the piece she was about to play.  Sitting on the piano bench, listening to the silence, Marash Girl began.  All she had to play was the first note of her piano piece, and the Marashtsis would join in with their English/Armenian/Turkish chatter.  Marash Girl never had to worry about making a mistake, because the crowd would never have noticed, they were so intent upon catching up with their neighbors on the latest Watertown Marashtsi news!  

                    Attendees at Hye Cafe enjoy listening to the Sabre Dance . . Photo by Mariam Stepanyan

Photo by Ara Stepanyan

Prof. Lerna Ekmekçioglu Speaks on Armenian Feminists in Post-Genocide Turkey

Prof. Lerna Ekmekçioglu - Photo by Marash Girl

Prof. Lerna Ekmekçioglu
Photo by Marash Girl

Yesterday evening at ALMA, Prof. Lerna Ekmekçioglu  presented on the subject, "Armenian Feminists in Post-Genocide Turkey".  Her talk highlighted the life and work of Haiganoush Mark and the Armenian Feminist Writers of the early 20th Century.  The title of her recently published book speaks for itself.  To learn more, buy the book! 

Cartoon of Haiganoush Mark depicted as a suffragette with banners of the Armenian Women's Association (left) and Hay Gin (Armenian Woman) (right)  in Dzablvar Darekirk, 1921 - Photo Credit: Lerna Ekmekçioglu

Haiganoush Mark and her husband - Public Domain Photo

"Hai Gin" - Tombstone of Haiganoush Mark and her husband.
(Note that her husband's epitaph is in the last three lines at the bottom of the gravestone).
Photo credit: Lerna Ekmekçioglu

Selecting a Head of Iceberg Lettuce

Selecting a head of iceberg lettuce or a bunch of celery or a one pound package of carrots? Weigh it, by hand first, and then on the nearest scale (you'll find one in the vegetable section of your local supermarket).  Goes for anything that sells by the dozen or by the pack (as opposed to by the pound.)

What you'll find is that all lettuces are not alike; all bunches of celery are not alike; all one pound bags of carrots are not one pound . . . some weigh more, some weigh less. So trot over to that scale, weigh your vegetables and make sure you're getting the heaviest bunch of celery, the heaviest head of lettuce, the heaviest "pound" bag of carrots on the counter!

More on Family Wedding Traditions . . .

Have you ever slept on your slice of wedding cake?

What is Marash Girl talking about?

When Marash Girl was growing up, the bride and groom always left slices of wedding cake for the guests to take home as a memento of the wedding, and the guests . . . if they were single women . . . were encouraged to place that piece of wedding cake [wrapped, of course, in a napkin,] under their pillow on the night of the wedding so that they would dream that night of the man they would marry.

Marash Girl shared that memory with CC, and CC did exactly as she was told, placing her piece of wedding cake under her pillow the night of the wedding and yes, she did dream of a young man the very night of the wedding, a young man that she knew . . . the question now is whether or not she will marry that young man . . . or whether or not she will even know that young man when she is old enough to marry!

Back in the Kitchen

Do you love iceberg lettuce the way Deron and Marash Girl love iceberg lettuce? If you love it . . . then pound that lettuce! It's a quick and easy way to rid the lettuce of its core without losing (or crushing) any of the leaves . . . with one hand on each side, hold the lettuce upright, with its core facing the cutting board; then pound it down (just once is all you need) onto the cutting board so that its core hits the cutting board without hurting the head of lettuce itself.  The core will immediately free itself from the rest of the lettuce and there you'll have coreless iceberg lettuce ready to wash and prepare in whatever way you wish, AND without losing one lettuce leaf . . .

In the interest of never throwing away food, Marash Girl is certain there'll be someone in the house who loves iceberg lettuce cores!

Nisha and John Married Yesterday! Takavor yev Takouhi!

Rev. Joanne Hartunian, long-time friend of the family, crowned Nisha and John "Takavor yev Takouhi", as she wished them "Showers of Blessings"!  N.B. Rev. Hartunian performed one of the most beautiful and meaningful wedding ceremonies Marash Girl and Marash Boy have ever attended . . .  "A marriage made in heaven," to quote Marash Boy.

 Mr. and Mrs. John Simmons cutting their wedding cake!

Nisha and John Are Getting Married Today!

մէկ բարձով թո՛ղ 

ծերանան՝ 

Meg partsov togh dzeranan!

May they grow old on one pillow.

-- Armenian blessing

 “Bir yastikta kocatsinlar."

May they grow old sharing the same pillow.

May their joys be as deep as the ocean

And their misfortunes as light as the foam.
-- Armenian blessing

May their joys be as bright as the morning, and their sorrows but shadows that fade in the sunlight of love.

-- Armenian blessing