“We are left with the elderly, what a village it is if there is no noise of children…” 

In my yard in the village of Antarashat in Syunik Marz, I met 88-year-old Marusya, a grandmother who fought with nature to collect small apples under hail-stricken apples in large bowls that she then should with a vodka with her son. Upon seeing me, the lost back straightened and invited me to sit down. She was surprised to learn that a journalist had come to the village of Antarashat that had been cut off and forgotten.

The village of Antarashat is 25 kilometers from the city of Kapan, and Grandmother Marusya was glad that her son, 65-year-old Yuran came from Kapan to live with her. “I have two daughters, one son. My daughters are married, one is in the village and the other is in Kapan. My son got married and went to Meghri, then got divorced, lived and worked in Meghri, then went to Kapan, I used to say  thousand times to come to live in the village. So ne came, now my heart is at rest, we live together, I know that I will not do the men’s hard work, “says Grandmother Marusyan.

As day starts, she enters the land with small steps, enjoys the hay-bunch of tomatoes, cucumbers, and beans, shakes off unnecessary herbs with a trembling hand, but can’t stay out of knee pain for long, returning, sitting on the couch. The son is angry, forbids to enter the land, but the heart does not tolerate, there is nothing worse than idleness, she must deal with something or not.

Since the last hail and mud the roof has been completely damaged, they have taken out a loan for repairs, their pension together is 90,000 AMD, most of it goes to repay the loan, some of it to the utilities, they live somehow.

Marusian speaks about an empty village with pain. In a village of 140 inhabitants, 15 houses are smoked in the winter, others have left for Goris, Meghri, Kapan or Yerevan, and some have left for Russia with their families. But in the summer, some families visit the village.

She talks about daughters-in-law who are left in the village with love, they are good, but “The brides of our times were different. Did one have the right to speak against her father-in-law, to oppose her mother-in-law? Nowadays not everyone votes to live with the elderly, they want to be separated, but there is no harm except the benefits of the elderly. They don’t want to understand, then tomorrow they too will become mother-in-law, “.

Today, she is suffering from gout, there is no doctor in the village, the opportunity to go to Kapan, too.

Before leaving, Grandma Marusia wished the young people good health, love and unity, hard work and good luck.