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Heavenly Blessed: “I have ten children. All are wonderful”

Kristine Aghalaryan, Grisha Balasanyan

In two months Armineh Antonyan (nee Simonyan) will give birth again – to her eleventh child.

But there’s still work to do in the garden; constantly tie the cucumber vines to the trellis, and weed the cabbage patch.

“Hey, I have to do it to feed my kids,” Armineh says, and continues to work in the stifling plastic enclosed hothouse.

This year, the family took out a loan and it has to be paid back.

In 1998, Armineh had three children and decided to abort the fourth she was carrying. But the attempt proved to be near fatal. The operation led to internal bleeding and Armineh was on death’s door for three days. Bed ridden in hospital, the mother promised God that if she was allowed to live she would never dare to terminate a pregnancy again. Today she has six sons and four daughters. The eleventh will be a girl. The older daughters have married and have made Armineh a grandmother.

The thirteen member Antonyan family lives in Artashar, a village in Armenia’s Armavir Province. The family struggles to make ends meet on the 76,000 AMD (US$186) in monthly child support and whatever grows in the garden. The kids sleep two to a bed and the youngest three to a bed.

The house is in need of repair. There’s no kitchen. The gas stove and the plates are placed near the rear door. On the day we visited one of the younger boys had caught a mouse behind the stove.

Despite it all, Armineh doesn’t complain - just as long as there’s bread on the table and clothes to wear, she says.

The only thing the family cannot provide is a higher education for the children. All the school age children are doing well in class. Village school principal Hasmik Arapionyan talks about the kids with pride – Armineh’s children are well behaved, intelligent and cultured, she says.

The photos of two of Armineh’s daughters are affixed to a board of honor students. The children want to go on to college but the family can’t afford the tuition. That’s why Garnik, the eldest boy never went to college. He’s already finished military service and is back home, working on the land.

Marousya, now in ninth grade, really wants to go to college and become a biologist. Armineh places her trust in God, hoping that a door will open for her.

In the village, Armineh is known as a ‘proud mother of many’ who doesn’t complain. She says that she’s never gone out of her way to ask for assistance for her children; financial or otherwise.

The one time, Armineh went to the regional government office to see if they could postpone the payment of the family’s land tax, but they refused. She was told that it wasn’t a day for accepting applications. Armineh returned home and has never gone back.

Armineh says she’s offended when people ask her why she has so many children. The implication being that only the uneducated have such large families.

She points out that in the neighboring seven houses combined there are less than ten children.

“I have ten children. All ten are wonderful. They’re my pride and joy,” says Armineh. “We need a lot of things but I don’t worry about the material stuff. What I want the most is for my kids to be healthy and safe. Always healthy so that I can live happy like this, to see my kids safe and sound.”

 

Comments (3)

Hagop
God bless you Armineh, and your whole family. You are a jewel in Armenia, and every Armenian needs to learn from you what life is truly about. These children are Armenia's real future and the best wealth we can have. Hetq, good job running stories like this and also try to give info so that in case diaspora Armenians happen to visit Armenia/Artsakh, how they can help out such families.
Preston Bagrationi
Instead of helping this family, which has gone above and beyond their duty repopulating emptied Armenia, the government hounds them and torments this good people for unpaid or late taxes. Armenias government officials are all well know Thieves, Crooks and shameless charlatans. These government officials have NO SHAME.....BASTARDS..they all can go to hell, filthy greedy self serving dogs. I hope these thieving officials are forced to read my comment...they do absolutely NOTHING GOOD for Armenia, but enrich themselves..
Varouj
If half the country were as positive and strong as Armineh Antonian we would be in a much better place. We can all learn from her example.

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