“Sasha came home on September 29th. We had set a table for him. It was around 10 pm and the kids were sleeping but when they heard his voice they ran to hug him,” said Sasha’s widow Gayane Osipyan as she described the last time they saw each other. “‘Take care of our kids' were his last words to me.”
Gayane is now a single mother caring for the couple’s four children, Davit, 9, Lilit, 7, Lusine, 4, and Rita, 2, after Sasha was killed on the battlefield in October 2020. She lives with her in-laws in Armenia’s Gegharkunik Province. They fled Baku after the 1988 pogroms, when Sasha was just three.
Davit, Lilit, Lusine, and Rita are four of the 74 children of fallen war veterans who recently received financial support from us thanks to a dedicated group of Boston-based donors. Like many of these families, losing their father meant losing their family's sole breadwinner.
Meanwhile Gayane is trying her best to become more self-sufficient. For the past few months she has been training to work as a manicurist thanks to a locally-run vocational training program. “It’s become a grief outlet for me. I like it and hopefully I will be able to open up a small salon close our house,” she said.
Gayane has put aside a portion of the financial support she received from us to open her own small business next year. “I have to live to raise my four kids and do my best for them,” she said.
To support the victims of Artsakh, make a donation on our secure website today.