Unite and do not flee to different countries: Antonina Mahari’s will to Armenians (video)
92-year-old Antonina Mahari rarely leaves her house; it is clear with the naked eye that there is nothing good outside, “Diseases, people are dying. Is there anything good?” She will not say the same about herself; the conditions of the house, of course, aren’t good, unheated room, damaged parquet. The cold, of course, hinders writing and reading, but is that a problem? “If my neighbor is unwell, I am also unwell. My neighbors are ill. I cannot think only about myself.” Until 1969 Mrs. Antonina lived with great Armenian writer Gurgen Mahari in this house, “He was a wretched man, that’s why I loved him. A wretched man.” All the walls of the room tell about the episodes of the writer’s life. In one photo he is with Charents, in another one- with Martiros Saryan, the greeting text received from Serzh Sargsyan two years ago is among these memories. The faith in victory of good in this cold room has become a writing about the worst days, “It was a completely different love, spiritual, I wanted to save him, to take out from the grave, but he was dying. It was something different, incomprehensible to you.” There is history of last days of Mahari in these sheets of paper. Mrs. Antonina again demands to read aloud. It is impossible to refuse, in the text the dying Gurgen Mahari is presented as a beloved son, “All this painful way, my beloved son is gone, the last person among my loved ones left.” Conclusion of this memory is love confession to Armenians, and also an exhortation, almost a will with a pen of a Lithuanian woman- unite and do not flee to different countries. What could this woman do? Life together with a genius is an absolute sacrifice; after all that she doesn’t long for compassion, “All the geniuses are crazy. You don’t know, writers are mad, they are helpless.” By the way, even today the door of the flat says that Gurgen Mahari lives inside it.
