First Meeting after 49 years

The Okoomian Family in Eastern Turkey

Today I am going to celebrate the lives of two women who made a lasting impression on me. They were my grandmothers.  As I remember, these were not women that you messed with.  They were strong, they were driven, and they were survivors.  What did they survive?  They survived a life filled with death, destruction, fear, imprisonment, relocation and a near annihilation of their own people.

I will start with my paternal grandmother, Mary (or Mariam). 

Mary was born in Eastern Turkey and immigrated in 1907 at 15 years of age.  Her brother, John, had arrived in 1907 and her sister, Elizabeth, arrived in 1911.  Both Mary and Elizabeth married Armenian men right away and eventually settled in Fresno, California.  Sadly, their parents were killed in 1915 and the remaining children scattered.   One sister, Margaret, searched for her family in America once her Turkish soldier husband had passed away.  She put an ad in an Armenian newspaper and found her sisters in Fresno.

At the airport:  Meeting for the first time in 49 years

The family was able to bring Margaret to America to visit around 1956.  I was just a little girl then, but I remember visiting many places with her. 

Fresno Bee article regarding the reunion

Eventually, Margaret returned to Turkey to be with her children and grandchildren, but it was an event that will never be forgotten.