Dorothy Parsikian

Dorothy Parsikian, of Burlington died on Saturday, September 14 at the Wingate in Reading.

Born March 19, 1934 on Mystic Valley Parkway in Arlington, Massachusetts. Mrs. Parsikian attended the Pierce Grammar School in Arlington, Arlington Jr. High West and Arlington High School graduating in 1952. She concentrated on business courses that prepared her to work initially for John Hancock Insurance Company and the Telephone Company. After successfully passing the civil service examination, Mrs. Parsikian worked at the Watertown Arsenal as a government employee.

After getting married, she left the workforce to have her first child after being pregnant for 6 months. In the 1950's, it was customary to stop work after 6 months. Mrs. Parsikian decided to be a stay at home Mom raising her two children Joanne and Denise. Once the children began attending Jr. High School, she returned to the work force part-time. She worked at Perkins School for the Blind for 12 years retiring at age 55. She was the Administrative Assistant to the principal for the Special Programs Department when she retired. Mrs. Parsikian resumed working part-time while living in Florida including 3 years with Liz Claiborne.

She was married to Vartkis Parsikian on September 2, 1956 in Watertown, Massachusetts. They met at an Armenian Dance in February 1953. Their first date was chaperoned by brother Aram and his date as their parents were very strict about going out with someone unknown. They got engaged Christmas 1954. Before they could get married in the Armenian Church, she had to get confirmed in the Armenian Church. Mrs. Parsikian was originally baptized in an Episcopalian Church called "Church of Our Savior" located in East Arlington, Massachusetts. Her brothers Aram and Jack also had to get confirmed. They had also been baptized at the Church of Our Savior. They all had brother George as their God father. The assumption is that this process was also true for her other siblings before they got married in the Armenian Church as they all attended the Church of Our Savior in their youth.

After living in Belmont, Massachusetts, Mrs. Parsikian and her husband moved to West Palm Beach, Florida in 1993 and had spent most of their retirement years in Florida. They maintained a residence in Watertown and lived there while not in Florida. They were blessed with three grand children; Christopher, Joy and Noel and now have seven great grandchildren; Talia, Zack, Mya, Morgan, Celina, Mila, and Charlie.

Most of Mrs. Parsikian's childhood memories were at 24 Newland Rd. Arlington, Massachusetts. Prior to moving to 24 Newland Rd., the family lived on Harvard Street in Arlington for a brief period of time after leaving the home on Mystic Valley Parkway also in Arlington.

Mrs. Parsikian has many fond memories of growing up on Newland Road. She remembers playing games such as dodge ball, Jacks, hop scotch and hide and seek with brothers Aram and Jack and the neighborhood children including Jackie Roberts who lived next door. Mrs. Parsikian remembers others thinking she was a tomboy as she enjoyed playing with boys as well as girls. She remembers going to see the Red Sox play at Fenway Park with sisters Anna and Lucy and going to double headers, two games for the price of one, at the cost of about 50 cents to sit in the bleachers. She fondly remembers her friend Maria Mosadini who lived up the street on Newland Road. With the help of Maria's mother, they would have a parade on May Day wearing colorful crepe paper costumes marching around a May Pole. When the parade was over they enjoyed a picnic hosted by Maria's mother.

Mrs. Parsikian remembers the challenges living at 24 Newland Road with 8 siblings and only one bathroom. She remembers the pecking order that existed as the older siblings got the best bedrooms and the younger you were, the longer you had to wait to get into the bathroom. As if a family of 11 was not enough, brothers Arthur and George, at different times, moved in with their new brides after getting married, necessitating new bedroom assignments. Fortunately, two new rooms were added in the attic along with beds in the attic foyer for Lucy, Dorothy, Aram and Jack.

She remembers how they used to load up in the one automobile and go to the beach on Sundays and her brother George doing the driving. Jack, who was the youngest, sat on her father's lap. A bench was put on the floor, in the back, for additional seating (two children back to back). In the 50's a third person could sit in front between the driver and the passenger seat. (4 in the front and 5 in the back). Seat belts were not invented or required in that era.

The Maranian children all attended the Church of Our Savior in our youth. Mrs. Parsikian remembers how they took the street car (public transportation) from Arlington Heights to East Arlington and on some occasions were picked up by Reverend Bixby. Sunday was also a day when aunts, uncles, cousins and other families would come for the day. She remembers her mother cooking huge amounts of food not knowing who would be coming. People used to come over unannounced in those days.

Along with all of the family, she enjoyed the holidays. Mrs. Parsikian remembers Christmas always having a Christmas tree and how the kids all got one present each. She remembers her mother at Easter, cooking and baking traditional foods for Holy week. She would cook yellow pilaf with almonds, Easter eggs cooked and dyed with onion skins and spinach. As they all got older and got married and had our own families, it was difficult to meet at The Maranian family home at 24 Newland Road. In 1966, they started a new tradition of having a family gathering at Christmas at a hall, hotel or motel. Each sibling would take turns in hosting the gathering. The responsibility has been turned over to future generations as time has passed.

Mrs. Parsikian's memories of her mother were about how hard she worked in raising nine children. One memory that had remained with her was that on occasion, her mother would take her to Boston to go shopping. On the way home, her mother would buy her a honey dip donut. She recalled a conversation she had with a family friend, Virginia Guleserian, who was also born in Aintab, Turkey, as her mother was. Virginia's recollection of Mrs. Parsikian's mother was that as a young women she was envied because of how she dressed, how she carried herself and how she came to the United States and raised her family. Mrs. Parsikian realized, that as she had gotten older, that in some ways she had become like her mother, especially when cooking or baking. She often thinks about how her mother would have cooked or baked a dinner or a dessert.

Mrs. Parsikian remembers her father as a strict man who was a very hard working man who did his best to support the family. She had a fond memory of him taking her to Arlington Heights to buy new shoes on a stormy winter day. He rarely missed going to work at his shoe repair shop in Somerville, Massachusetts unless the weather was very bad.

An interesting way that she viewed our family was that because of the big difference in age between Leo and Jack (17 years), there were two sets of siblings from different generations. Leo, Anna, George, Arthur and Michael were raised as children in the 20's and 30's while Lucy, Aram, Jack and her were raised in the 40's and 50's.

One regret that she had is that she did not have the opportunity to her know grandparents who were casualties of the genocide.

Mrs. Parsikian was the beloved wife of Vartkis E. Parsikian. She was the loving mother of Joanne E. Tashjian and husband Greg of Stoneham and Denise A. Molloy and husband James of Middleton. She was the sister of Jack Maranian, Lucy Balian, and the late Leo Maranian, Ann Haroutunian, George Moranian, Arthur Maranian, Michael Maranian, and Aram Maranian. She was the beloved grandmother of Christopher Tashjian and his wife Kim, Joy Bethune and her husband Michael, and Noel Talanian and husband Christopher; she was the great grandmother of Talia, Zack, Mya, Morgan, Celina, Mila, and Charlie. She ia also survived by her sisters and brothers in-law; as well as many nieces and nephews.

Her Funeral will be held in Holy Trinity Armenian Apostolic Church, 145 Brattle St., Cambridge on Thursday Sept. 19 at 12 noon. Visitation for relatives and friends will be held at the church prior to the service beginning at 10:30 am.

In lieu of flowers, please make a contribution to Holy Trinity Apostolic Church in Dorothy's name.

September 19, 2019
12:00 PM

Holy Trinity Armenian Apostolic Church
145 Brattle St
Cambridge, MA

September 19, 2019
10:30 AM to 12:00 PM

Holy Trinity Armenian Apostolic Church
145 Brattle St
Cambridge, MA