Three Apples: Anecdotes and Emotions of a Living Legacy
a column by Paul Chaderjian for the Asbarez newspaper Once there was and there was not… Your face has changed. It’s fuller now. Your five o’clock shadow has disappeared. Your hairline has receded. And the decades you’ve lived are recorded in the wrinkles on the back of the hands you’re washing. You’re standing in front of a sink in one of the bathrooms of Baghramian Hall in Montebello. Nareg is at the sink to your right. You’ve known his family your entire life; and tonight Nareg, his brother Varand, and their mother Louisa will receive the St. Mesrob Mashdotz Medal awarded posthumously to their father, Vahik Gourjian. As Nareg says something, you remind yourself that you will write him and his brother an e-mail tonight and tell them that it was an honor to have known and learned from their father. You will tell them you feel fortunate to have known this former editor of the Asbarez, this community leader, and an ARF executive. You will write that you feel fortunate to know h...