They Published My Story!

Thanks to 100 lives, they published my story which I wrote about the steps, the tragedies and the efforts of goodhearted people that enabled my mother and my grandparents to escape to America.

https://100lives.com/en/stories/detail/regular/7578/shirley-collins

1928 France

 The picture shows 1928 France: these are the two Bardakjian brothers who looked after my mother, my grandmother and my uncle while my grandfather went to America to find a job and a home.  Unfortunately, my uncle could not get a quota because he was born in Jerusalem and it took four years before my grandmother finally relented and left him with his cousins while she and my mother went on the boat without him.  My mother cried the whole trip across the sea.  It would be another 6 months before my uncle was able to join the rest of the family in Philadelphia.

This is why I always thank the Bardakjian family for taking such good care of my family so many years ago.

Another Attic Treasure

I found these among my mother's things after she passed away.  Apparently, my grandmother must have picked them up on a trip she took to then Communist Armenia in 1963:

Commemorative pins and key chains

On the bottom are vintage pins made in 1962 for celebrating the 1600th Anniversary of the Armenian Alphabet created by St. Mesrop Mashtots years 362-1962. 

In the middle is a vintage lapel pin with the map of Armenia and «ՀՍՍՀ» means Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic.

The key chains have the picture of "Vardan Mamikonian" and his sword on the back.  He is a national hero, it is in memory of "avarayri herosamart" which happened in 451 A.D. Vardan was a commander and a warrior who was killed in the battle but Armenians believe they won the battle because the king of Sassanid Persia wanted to make them change their religion and he failed doing that, the Persians were victorious in battlefield, the battle is proved to be a strategic victory for Armenia.  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Avarayr

My grandmother's visa to Communist Armenia 1963

Today's checklist - check, check, half-check

I accomplished two things today:

1) I started a flickr account and posted a few of my favorite pics:

Picture on Flickr

2) I submitted a story to Chicken Soup for the Soul.  http://www.chickensoup.com/story-submissions/submit-your-story

3) I tried to go outside but the heat and the smoke drove me back in, blah!

Left is a picture of me my daughter took while I was taking pictures of the flowers on her cactus plant.

Camp Oddo and Armenian Refugees

Nansen Passport: My mother and grandmother

My mother, my grandparents, my uncle, and my auntie I never met, were refugees in the 1920s.  They were forced to leave their home which was at one time Western Armenia.  When they ended up in France they stayed in Camp Oddo initially and were issued Nansen passports.  Those were, basically, humanitarian passports given to those without a country.

Today I found out there is a cooperative website that lists my family at Camp Oddo.  I got chills reading their names.  My mother would talk about the camp and her memories of it as a little girl.  She remembered lots of tents, that it smelled and was dirty.

Even little Marie Guleserian who fell ill and supposedly died in France is listed. They are listed on page 37.

http://webaram.com/

ARAM is an acronym and stands for: 

 Association for Research and Archiving of the Armenian Memories

What an incredible effort and thank goodness for the information highway.

It saddens me though when I hear daily of new refugees flooding out of Syria and even Lebanon due to religious bigotry and intolerance, violence and hatred.  Sadly, only recently, a small family drowned trying to get to Greece so they could eventually travel to Canada. They had no identification issued by the government.  Once again, man's inhumanity to man strikes anew.

#HetchHetchyHypocrites

I just received the following email from my congressman and I have to post it here.  It's very annoying to me that we here in the Central Valley of California are being shortchanged so that those living in the Bay area, particularly San Francisco, remain comfortable.  It's time people spoke up about it.

While our lawns are dying and farmers are plowing under their crops, the San Francisco and coastal communities continue to plunder the reservoir in Yosemite with no restrictions attached.

A recent UC Davis study projected the costs of the California water crisis this year. The researchers found:

·         The net water shortage will be 2.5 million acre-feet in 2015.
·         In response, farmers will fallow 542,000 acres of land.
·         The crisis will cost the California economy $2.74 billion this year, with the loss of 21,000 jobs.

The study finds that California agriculture is faring better than many predicted. Some areas are suffering much more than others, however. As the researchers previously noted, “The impacts are concentrated mostly in the San Joaquin Valley.”

For decades, elites in the Bay Area, which is a primary support base for many radical environmental groups, have successfully fought to divert huge amounts of Delta water from Central Valley families and communities to environmental causes. Meanwhile, the Bay Area’s own water supply is not subject to these diversions. San Francisco and other coastal communities enjoy an uninterrupted water supply piped in across the state from the Hetch Hetchy reservoir in Yosemite National Park. As Valley farmers fallow their dried up land, take a look at Hetch Hetchy – these photos were sent to my office by a Valley farmer who visited Yosemite last month:   

 

It’s quite amazing how much water the Bay Area has kept for itself by exempting Hetch Hetchy from the punishing water regulations it has foisted on the Central Valley.  

Let’s see if we can draw the Bay Area’s attention. If you have pictures of Hetch Hetchy brimming with water, please post them on your social media accounts with the hashtag #HetchHetchyHypocrites.

Sincerely,

Devin Nunes

MEMBER OF CONGRESS

Losing Someone is Never Easy

One of my husband's coworkers, a fellow teacher, passed away suddenly a few days before school started and a shock wave went through our small community.  I wrote down a few thoughts about these tragedies.

 An end-of-the-year 2014 picture of Bill Gardenhire (or Mr. "G" as they called him) 

and my husband with one of their students.

Mr. "G" in his end of the year Wizard costume, a student, and my husband hidden in his spacesuit costume

Whenever one of my adult children would call to tell me the devastating news of one of their young friends tragically passing away, so sudden and shocking, I would try and come up with some words of wisdom and/or comforting words for them.  

Usually my first words would be, “life is so fragile,” and it truly is.  We are just one heartbeat away from leaving this life, our earthly bodies, and so many that we love and cherish; so much that we want to do and see; so much life yet to live.  I would tell my children to treasure these days and hug those whom they are near.  

It is a nasty reminder that everything must come to an end one day, even our own lives.  It is also a reminder to be close to the ones you love; to live a reality that one day may be all you have.  This sense of urgency and closeness washes over us.  

When my mother was dying of cancer she received a phone call from one of her friends.  What horrible news her friend said, how awful it all is.  My mother exclaimed, “Why?  I have lived a full life; I have done many things that I have enjoyed; I have a wonderful family.  Why be unhappy?”

Even in the end she was so positive.  Will I be that way, I wonder?

Whenever someone close passes away, I always have these same thoughts.  I don’t know what other comforting words there are or any words of wisdom that haven’t already been said or repeated.

Then I am reminded of another story my mother loved to tell.  She had just lost her father and the next day she got the news that her second grandson had been born, my first born.  She was thrilled and she would say – “When one life passes and lights the sky, another is born.”  Life continues on.  “For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face.”  I Cor. 13:12

I can already see Mr. G’s huge smile lighting the skies.

Summer Fun 2015

Sadly, we leave our summer home tomorrow morning.  Our working vacation is over and now we return to the real world, at least for the time being.  Here are a few good-bye happy-times pictures:

Tie-dyed T-shirts hanging to dry

I caught these campers hanging their newly made tie-dyed T-shirts from Wishon Village's Saturday activity.

My last campfire

I cleaned up around the RV and made my last campfire for the season.

A little frog who liked to inhabit the bathroom showers during our daily clean up chores.

Ta-Ta - until next time