Providence Journal RI

Adrina and Agnooni Baligian

01:00 AM EDT on Monday, September 10, 2007

`His aunt lived in Haverhill and decided I should meet her
nephew. That’s how they did things in those days. It wasn’t even a
date. We came down to Providence, went to his mother’s house for
dinner. Nooni was home on leave from the Navy.’

It was May 1944. And on Dec. 24 of that year, Adrina and Agnooni were
married at Sts. Vartanantz Armenian Apostolic Church, in
Providence. She was 22; he was 24.

`I had to go to Haverhill to fetch her cause that’s the tradition. My
father was furious because that was our busiest day of the year.’
Nooni’s family was in the candy business in Providence.

`It was icy snow, but my father said, `If you don’t come and get her,
there will be no wedding.’ ‘

Agnooni had joined the Navy in 1939. A violinist, he played with the
Navy band, first in Washington, D.C., then in Honolulu. He was at
Pearl Harbor when it was attacked. After four years in the South
Pacific, he was sent stateside to Sampson Naval Base in New York. And
that’s where the newly married couple lived until Nooni got out.

`We bought a house in Cranston. Nooni had saved $5,000. The house cost
$10,500. Our monthly payment was something like $38.’

`My folks were in the confectionery business in The Arcade. I helped
them out, but it was never enough to support two families.’ Nooni
started working for Avery Piano Company as a technician, learning to
tune pianos, and was second violinist with the Rhode Island
Philharmonic for 17 years. `I played with every musical organization I
could – at the Warwick Tent, when the Ice Capades came to town, and in
between, we both helped my dad with the candy business.’

`I’d play a concert, and in my tails and bow tie would come down to
the candy store, take my tails off, loosen my tie, and we’d be making
candy until 2 or 3 in the morning.’

Adrina, who studied voice at the New England Conservatory, grew up
helping her parents in their Haverhill tailoring shop. But she started
losing her sight at age 18, gradually, but enough that she could no
longer read music. `I’m legally blind. I have Stargardt’s Disease. It
wasn’t diagnosed until after we were married. There’s no treatment,
nothing that can be done. Everything I see is blurred: I can see your
shape but I can’t see your face.’

Adrina and Nooni had two children – a daughter born in 1945 and a son
in 1949. `They got up early, prepared meals themselves, went to bed on
time. We never had to tell them to go to bed or to get up,’ Adrina
said.

`We always worked hard,’ said Nooni. `When we grew up and got married,
everybody worked hard.’

Now, at 85 and 87, and going on 63 years of marriage, Adrina and Nooni
live in an apartment at Briarwood Meadows, in Warwick. Adrina has been
diagnosed with cancer. `I took her for radiation treatment, every day
for five weeks. But now it’s metastasized into her lungs.’

`I will live out my life and have a positive attitude, and I’m not
going to do anything more. … But I depend on him for everything. He
even takes me to buy my underwear.’

`It’s payback time. It’s time that I do things for her.’

`I always tell him, `If you multiply a breakfast every day for 365
days by 63 years, that’s over 20,000 breakfasts I’ve made for him!’ ‘

cgrosch@projo.com