My father-in-law passed away three years ago. I came across his eulogy today when I searched for his name in my Evernote (which I use for evvvverything). Today is his birthday.

Rereading it made me sad, proud… A whole combination of things. He did so much for me and for others. But my sister-in-law said it recently, that his children and (now 5!) grandchildren are his legacy. They SO are.

I pray we’re able to raise them to have as much integrity, resolve, energy, and generosity as Hagop did.

Eulogy:

I imagine it is hard for most family members and friends to sum up their love, respect, and sadness in just a few minutes, bookended by funeral rites.

My father’s story is tremendously inspirational, and tells of a personally-driven and professionally-determined Armenian man, who overcame odds to do whatever he could for his family, the church, and the Armenian people.

Hagop was born into a musical family who had recently experienced profound grief due to the Armenian Genocide. He was a hardworking son and studied hard to make a better life for himself and his family. Without knowing any English, he applied to “MIT, Boston”, translating his hand-written application from a dictionary. He was accepted and finished his B.S. in Electrical Engineering in just three and a half years and eventually became an expert in electromagnetic component design.

Then my father turned his attention to improve the life of his immediate family, who, in one way or another, made him who he was: His hardworking, small-grocery-store-owning father; his kind-hearted, musically-talented, and devout mother; his older brother who served in the Turkish army; and his younger who would go on to study opera as a singer. My father brought them all from the “old country”, as he always called it, and bought a house for them: a 1740s colonial house in Woburn that his father would call a “palace”.

We always knew our Hayrig had a great amount of Askaserootiun – that’s “love of his people”, or “love of Armenians”, for those of you who don’t know Armenian. In the week since his passing, we’ve encountered story after story of his involvement in Armenian affairs, far and wide. From being a member and organizer of the MIT Armenian Club’s activities in the 1950s, to being a founding member of the Armenian Assembly in 1972, to hosting Armenian clergy and Armenian musicians from Yerevan studying in the United States…he left the door open to all, both the literal door and the one in his heart. As children, we recall the volunteerism examples he would set, driving throngs of teenagers from Armenia on exchange programs to-and-from activities around greater Boston through his involvement in CYSCA, the Cambridge-Yerevan Sister City Association. He would encourage his kids – us – to participate and help translate between English and Armenian. I recall other occasions of him helping Armenian immigrants he never met, who just arrived from Baku, Istanbul, or Yerevan, showing Armenian hospitality from the other side of the pond. Or packing boxes full of clothes to victims of the 1988 Gyumri earthquake and other tough years in Armenia.

Yet his involvement in Armenian activities was a bit of a sideshow – Hagop made his family his first priority. He married later in life, and cared dearly for his wife, Carol, and his four sons, Armen, Haig, Aram, and Vartan. As his sons were born, he comfortably slipped from engineering as a day job to consulting, finally landing onto being the “housewife”, as he would cheekily call it. He stayed home for child-rearing, with all the cooking, cleaning, chauffeuring, and food shopping to go with it, while our mom went to back work at her software engineering day job. Hagop was also the bill-payer, tax preparer, stock broker, and paperwork shuffler-in-chief. With four rambunctious boys, and me being one of them, I can tell you it was probably not an easy job!

As a father, Hagop was somewhat strict and demanding, principled, and very protective, but, ultimately, immensely proud and loving. That was difficult at times, especially when we were teenagers. But the values he instilled in us – integrity, determination, sacrifice, askaserootiun, and above all else, love for the family – speaks volumes to the legacy he leaves in all of us.

At last night’s wake, my brothers and I heard so many stories of our Hayrig helping his fellow Armenian. Many of these we had never heard before, and that was not surprising – he wasn’t a boastful man. We realize that we have so much to learn about Hayrig from all of you, and we’d love to hear more stories at today’s Hokejash.

Hagop’s Askaserootiun is evident in the lessons he learned himself, such as from this song his mother once sang:

Love your fellow Armenian,
Even if he is homeless or poor,
With old garments, begging from door to door.
He is Armenian after all,
so make it your responsibility to
love him like an Armenian,
love him like an Armenian.

May we all lead our lives by Hagop’s example.

As you might know if you’ve been reading this blog/site for a while, Vartan and I have commissioned the translation of two books about Armash – the Ottoman-era town and theological center where Vartan’s ancestors lived. One of the books is complete, about Vartan’s grandfather Hagopos Ayvazian – a musicologist and composer.

The other book, “Armash,” is apparently written in an old-fashioned and highly academic style, so it’s taking a lot longer to get through. Still, we have some sample pages! Interesting tidbits just here, even. I can’t wait to get the whole thing… Stay tuned.

I got an instant pot as a gift, and it is absolutely life-changing. I’m not a great cook, don’t have the attention span for it, and I burn stuff on the regular. BUT with the instant pot, you just set everything up, walk away, and wait until it’s done.

One of my favorite foods is eetch, and I couldn’t find a recipe for eetch in the instant pot online, so I made one up! Worked well. Enjoy.

Ingredients:

• 2 small onions, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 2 cups coarse bulgur (size 3)
• 2 cups water
• 1 20oz can of diced tomatoes
• 1 small can of tomato paste
• 4 tablespoons red pepper paste
• Olive oil

Optional, to add in at the end for extra texture and garnish: chopped parsley, more chopped red bell pepper, halved cherry tomatoes, lemon juice.

Instructions:

• Dice two onions and a red bell pepper
• Saute the onions and pepper on high in the instant pot, with a little bit of olive oil, until the onions get soft – about 5 minutes
• Dump bulgur, water, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, and red pepper paste into the instant pot IN THAT ORDER. (Don’t stir until everything is done cooking. Sometimes chunky things like tomatoes can sink to the bottom and burn.)
• Set the pressure cooker on high for 12 minutes, or use the rice setting, then do an instant release.
• Mix, and add any extras (chopped red bell pepper, tomatoes, parsley) you want in at the end for freshness and texture. Yum!