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!
Good for you! Hard call, even if he didn't remember.
ReplyDeleteMay family originated in Van. I only remember doing this once, ahead of a cousin's wedding when I was very young. I thought it quite odd, and as I recall, it was done at the shower - all the ladies dipped a little finger into the henna mixture and it was then wrapped and covered with a little netting tied over it - like when you wrap jordan almonds for a shower. I also thought it very strange to find people "stealing" things form her house - to later be returned during a dance at the wedding. That would make me crazy - tough enough to transport all the gifts, etc. without having to deal with extra items lol.
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