Aunt Rosemary’s Brother

A few weeks ago I stopped at my grandmother’s for coffee, and sitting at her round wooden table was Aunt Rosemary. Now, for any Armenian in the tri-state area (and beyond honestly), Aunt Rosemary needs no introduction or even a last name to be identified. But if I must, Rosemary Alashaian is infamous. The name is synonymous with Armenian community royalty, from being a recipient of the AYF Olympic Queen title to being known as the resident Dancing Queen of Club 27 (I totally just dubbed her that, but trust me, it’s well deserved). All the members of the Alashaian family are known for their ties to the community, from Aunt Rosemary’s late husband Avo Alashaian, who was a long-time St. Illuminator’s enthusiast and board member, to her three sons Mark, Richard and Avi Alashaian, who are remembered in their own right for their work on the church basketball docket. Even her eight grandkids are all involved in the community, attending Camp Haiastan, participating in the AYF and carrying on the Alashaian legacy. But that shared coffee with her at my grandmother’s had me thinking seriously about her last name. Her maiden name, that is. 

She asked me to come over one afternoon the following week. We sat down together in her apartment, and she told me about an article she’d read in the Weekly titled “AYF Bowling in the Weekly” written by Mark Gavoor. The article was well done, and we agreed that Baron Mark is skilled at sifting through archives, chronicling information and writing in a journalistic style. Yet Aunt Rosemary expressed longing of a sort. The article focuses on the AYF bowling teams that sprouted across New England. It names a bunch of chapters and lists a few participants. It even asks readers to reach out if they have any additional information about the leagues and how they were organized. At first, I couldn’t understand what it was that Aunt Rosemary wanted to contribute to the article. But then she told me about her brother.