My Mother - A Tribute

I'm the baby - with my mother, sister and brother

Happy Mother's Day 2017

As I reflect on this annual event and remember my mother, I think that many of us do not appreciate our mothers enough until we are older and have children of our own.  Then all of a sudden we are so thankful they put up with us the way they did.

We start to remember all the little things they did to make our lives so special, to keep us safe, to teach us all they could in order for us to enter into life well informed, steady on our feet, and ready for whatever life would throw at us.

There are so many things my mother did for us children that have affected us to to this day that I can only be in awe and thankful that she took so much time out of her busy day to spend with us, tutor us, discipline us, take us on field trips, and basically dote on us.

My mother used every opportunity as a teaching moment.  We had all kinds of animals including dogs, cats, birds, hamsters and chickens.  These were learning experiences she said.  Our hamster was pregnant and due to give birth. This was an exciting event, she said.  We were all waiting for this blessed event.  When that moment arrived my mother yelled for us to come and watch.  As fate would have it, I was in the bathroom and missed the whole thing. Boy, was I disappointed.

One day she told us she was going to teach us about the birds and the bees.  I was so excited.  I had heard about this when adults talked and made jokes about it. I couldn't wait. I was finally going to find out what the birds and the bees was all about.  As we all sat down on the couch with her, she opened up a book that was literally about the birds and the bees. Really?  I was disappointed but as she read about life my interest grew by leaps and bounds.

With my cousins at the turkey farm

So much of our time was spent going places and doing things.  She organized field trips so that we would see the country.

We went to turkey farms, we took the train, we went to a farm to ride a tractor and we always, always went to the Fresno Zoo.

Honeymoon Pool Dinky Creek

Every summer we spent two weeks at Camp Fresno in Dinkey Creek experiencing our mountain getaway.  It was my favorite vacation.

Once my brother saw a trout in the creek so he threw a rock at it and caught it. We ran back to the camp yelling, "Mom, Mom, Johnny caught a fish."  She promptly cleaned the fish, coated it in butter and lemon, wrapped it in aluminum foil and grilled it right there.  That was the best fish I  had ever eaten.

On the tractor

Feeding Nosy the elephant at the zoo

As I got older I did not appreciate my mother like I should have.  Why, I don't really know. But when I came back to her side with children of my own, she was once again my bulwark and my anchor.  Whatever I did in life, whatever mistakes I made, whatever silly and foolish choices I made, she never gave up on me.  She stepped in and took up the mantle when I needed help after a recent divorce.  My children benefited greatly because of her efforts.  I will forever be indebted.

RIP my sweet mother.  You left us richer and with memories we cherish and will never forget.  Until we meet again.

We Went to the Cave for Safety - The Story as it Unfolded

The Cave in Aintab -a recently acquired picture

Returning from Exile

Towards the end of WWI, forces were madly fighting in Eastern Turkey (or as Armenians like to say, Western Armenia).  The Ottoman Empire was crumbling and gasping for air.  The British had told the Armenians in exile that they could return to their homes as they thought the war was over and their lands were being given back to them.

 In their last hurrah, however, the Turkish forces under Attaturk made an onslaught against this community in Eastern Turkey named Aintab which was formerly a majority of Armenians and where my mother was born. The attempt was to drive out the Armenians who had returned.  My mother was born in the midst of this tumult in 1919. She nearly perished from lack of food so my grandfather pleaded with the missionary doctor at the time, a Dr. Shepherd, for canned milk for my mother and she was saved because of his efforts.

The Armenians made an attempt to defend their town against the Turkish army with the supposed help of the French and the British. Although at some point everyone was fighting everyone.  My grandfather valiantly, along with the other men of the town, tried to defend the Armenian community.  He is shown in a picture from a book on Aintab with other fighters.

My grandpa, 3rd from the right, with his friend's hand on his shoulder

 About the Cave

The story I was told and which my mother wrote down, was that my grandfather had taken the little family to a cave for safety.  It was in this cave where my grandfather thought he would scout outside to see if it was safe.  Against my grandmother's wishes, he went outside and was hit with shrapnel and had to be taken to the American hospital.

Recently, a picture surfaced, found by a researcher in Aintab, of the cave where the Armenians had gathered for safety. I never in my lifetime thought I would see a picture of this cave, which apparently is now underneath a school or hospital, as nearly all of the presence of the very large Armenian population had been erased. Even the town's name was changed to Gaziantep to celebrate their victory of eliminating the presence of Armenians in their very own city. The above picture was sent to descendants of Aintab by this researcher.

Wilsonian Map of Armenia

Initially, the Armenians thought their perils were over and they could return.  Even President Wilson had planned for this and made a map of the new divisions in Eastern Turkey.

In January of 1922 the French forces retreated.

Unfortunately, the Lausanne treaty would take place in 1923 by the French so that they could have Syria as a mandate and they gave the lands to the Turkish army.  Sadly, my mother and her family had to leave once again.  Every single Armenian who had returned were forced to leave until the last two remaining Armenians who had been two midwife sisters and needed by the Turkish community left.  Thankfully, they kept their journals and much has been learned from their writings.

It was the end of the Armenians in their ancestral lands - now called Eastern Turkey.  So the surfacing of the picture of the cave has monumental meaning for me and my family.  

For further reading on the topic, an excellent dissertation can be found at http://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/en/document/expulsion-non-turkish-ethnic-and-religious-groups-turkey-syria-during-1920s-and-early-1930s