Interview with Grandmother - Maria

I interviewed my grandmother, Maria, on a sunny Friday afternoon.  She lives in Burbank, California with her husband of forty-seven years and is sixty-six years old. However, this is not where she’s been living her entire life.  Maria originated from Armenia and moved to America only fifteen years ago, when I was just one with our entire family. She loves living here because she had a hard life living in Armenia.  There are many things that mad it hard for her but the main reason why she moved here is because of her living situation.  Like she says, it was difficult living with her sons, their wives, and grandchildren, in just one uncomfortable house. 

The biggest change that I’ve been in is when I moved to America. Life compared to Armenia was hard.  We lived with a hard life. In Armenia I lived in my own house that wasn’t comfortable because it was tiny, we had a big family but no luxuries for everyone. We lived very cramped. I didn’t have my own room because we lived with three families together. Two boys, two wives, me, my husband, and kids with grandchildren we were a big family.

Our house was very different, when Varouj was married (uncle) we turned our basement into more than one room, by digging into the ground.  We remolded it and made it into a living place, with a kitchen, bathroom, and living room.  And later on he had two daughters.  When Tadevos, (dad) got married, they got my room which was under the same house.  Me and my husband slept in the balcony.  We put our stuff in there but it wasn’t like today’s balconies.  It was kind of closed and it was in a very tiny room.  When you came through the door you went straight into the small kitchen. We had one refrigerator, sink, stove and a small table.  There wasn’t many cabinets, it was a poor kitchen. And the bathroom was the size of a closet, just like a small cube.  It was so packed.   The living room was okay, not too big and not too small.  Of course, we had one television in the living room.

When you look through the window outside you can see the gerezman [cemetery].  Everyday you can see that somebody dies and people bring them by walking with the dead, funeral type music.  It isn’t like it was today.  Instead of putting the coffin in a car and driving it to the place, people had to walk and hold on to the coffin all the way to the burial.  And you can hear everybody crying and even count the amount of flower arrangements.  Yes, it was very hard.  For a big family it was really hard the finding food, cooking, preparing it was displaying a big problem for us.

When we moved to America we lived in a really nice house again all of us together as a big family. But again we had difficulties us not knowing about things. We came to America with the whole family we came with nine people: me, my husband, two sons, their wives, and their four children.  We lived in Glendale on Concord in a pretty apartment.  For us there was no help because we didn’t know any English.  Jahelnera [young adults] didn’t have work for a period of time so we had government help (welfare) until they learned the language and began to separate. This approximately made it easier.  After I learned the language, I took out a permit so I could learn how to drive.  And now I drive a car.  I can go anywhere on my own time and my own places like stores, churches, and picnics.

Now I live in Burbank in the senior citizen building, me and my husband.  Of course I like it, it’s a really good building and very comfortable.  The mangers are really good people, very patient and the surroundings are very good, it’s clean and it’s in the center of Burbank. Our building has a lot of special conveniences, laundry use; big dining room where everyone gathers around with other tenants and get to know one another.  On Friday nights we play bingo and celebrate birthdays once every month, where everyone gathers together so we can celebrate that month’s birthdays.  My husband plays pool, and we have a library, coffee at any time and can welcome guests if we want.  We live on the tenth floor and have a very beautiful view of Los Angeles out the balcony right under our feet.  At night with the lights it’s even more beautiful.

Obviously you’re more closer when you live together, every moment you get to talk with one another.  But it’s easier for everyone to live separately but that even has its bad side. What can I say? It’s important that each person is relaxed for themselves.

It’s obvious that I’m Armenian and would want to live in my homeland but not under those harsh living conditions because we lived a very hard life.  After seeing the way conditions are like her in America I like it here and are here to stay.

I don’t know that housing situations is a big change for anyone else but it was for me.  I went from a balcony bedroom to a balcony with a view of the entire downtown Burbank area.  I went from a home with an underground basement to the tenth level of a senior citizen building.  What can I say?  I am very happy with where I am because there are still people that live in the houses that I used to live in, in Armenia.  And I want them to come and enjoy life the way I live in America.

              Interviewed by Suzanna Tadevossian