Her name was Azat. It means freedom in Armenian. She escaped from Turkey with her family during the Armenian genocide. She spoke 5 languages and was a very hard working woman. Her profession was being a dressmaker (an amazingly talented one) and of course, a mother - my mother. She was my role model. This is not the first time I have written openly about her. In fashion school, I used her as a model for a term paper about a fashion designer.
Today is her birthday or would have been. I think of her every day. After she died, I found that paper I wrote among her belongings.
Last month, my daughter did something that made me realize how much her grandmother meant to her. Not that I am fond of tattoos, but what can I say. I love my daughter too.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Freedom
Her name was Azat. It means freedom in Armenian. She escaped from Turkey with her family during the Armenian genocide. She spoke 5 languages and was a very hard working woman. Her profession was being a dressmaker (an amazingly talented one) and of course, a mother - my mother. She was my role model. This is not the first time I have written openly about her. In fashion school, I used her as a model for a term paper about a fashion designer.
Today is her birthday or would have been. I think of her every day. After she died, I found that paper I wrote among her belongings.
Last month, my daughter did something that made me realize how much her grandmother meant to her. Not that I am fond of tattoos, but what can I say. I love my daughter too.
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4 comments:
Wow. Is that tattoo on her arm or her leg? Hard to tell from the photo. But, I have to admit, it's a really nice tattoo. Classy.
That's my favorite tattoo. I love all of mine but that one is my favorite. (It's on my arm btw). I think of her everyday too.
My mother would have been 79 on January 15. She shared the same birthday and birth year with Martin Luther King Jr. She liked to remind my father of this fact and it always played out like an Archie and Edith Bunker dialogue.
It seems a sad irony that while much of the country was watching Dr. King's freedom march and the baby boomettes were burning their bras, my mother and many housewives like her were wondering how all this clammoring for freedom would ever touch their lives.
Jen: I didn't know your mother was born the day after mine. It figures they gave birth to such classy ladies like us!
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