85-year-old Yuri Avetisyan was present at the opening of Alzheimer Care Armenia Brain Health project’s Memory Cafe initiative. He came with his wife, 65-year-old Ruzanna Javakhyan. Grandfather Yura had a difficult life, but his desire to live and his love of life helped him move forward. He studied at the Yerevan State Conservatory, as a violinist, and also played in a symphony orchestra. He says that the years of working with Ohan Duryan were especially wonderful. Then he started to do pedagogical work, and now he teaches at the Faculty of Culture of the Armenian State Pedagogical University after Khachatur Abovyan.
Mrs. Ruzanna says that although she is 65 years old, her husband seems to be younger than her. He has a special diet, and taught his wife the secrets of longevity, the most important of which are vegetarianism and sports.
“I am 85 years old, I will have to live with Ruzanis for a little longer. I don’t know what is disease.” Yuri Avetisyan says with a smile.
He is German by nationality. Grandpa Yura remembers that in 1945 there was a bombing in the city of Bonn, Germany. “I was 8 years old, on that terrible day when the bombing started, I was playing in the street. My parents died, I survived. I was crying when an officer of the Soviet army, a man of Armenian nationality, found me, took my hand and took me with him. He was from Gyumri, he brought me with him to Gyumri. A wonderful family adopted me in Gyumri. My full name was Hans Rauchberger, but I got a new name: Yuri Avetisyan. I was the only child in the family, they filled my life with love and warmth, they became father and mother for me,” he says.
He was 15 years old when his father, who worked at the Gyumri railway station, died. His disabled mother, a seamstress, continued to take care of him. Yuri Avetisyan says that while studying at the college and conservatory, he saw very difficult days, sometimes he survived on bread crumbs, but the dream of becoming a violinist, the love of his friends and mother helped him move forward. Yuri Avetisyan does not consider himself old.
“When I travel by bus, young people give up their seats, they say, ‘Sit down, dear grandfather,’ I say, ‘Am I a grandfather? I have to live until I become a grandfather.’ First of all, a person should be good in spirit, dress nicely and stylishly, do sports, eat healthy, and not fall behind in life. I hope I will have the opportunity to spend interesting moments in this cafe,” says Yuri Avetisyan.
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