FEELS GREAT AT 105

Waverley Leader
July 8, 2008 Tuesday
Australia

1 – WGV Edition

PUMPING both fists into the air, Rose Balian shouts "I feel great!".

Even though the 105-year-old Glen Waverley Private Nursing Home
resident speaks little English, her body language and energy speak
volumes.

Flanked by son John, 64, and 24-year-old granddaughter Rose acting
as translators the Turkish-born Armenian reminds fellow residents
that she speaks six languages: Turkish, Italian, French, Arabic,
Greek and Armenian.

"There are people in their 80s here that are bending over and say they
feel old but I feel great and much of it is to do with my family,"
Mrs Balian said. Born in Istanbul on June 7, 1903, Mrs Balian grew
up in the middle of World War I.

"All I remember was a lot of people going and not coming back,"
she said.

In 1923, and with husband Stephen, she fled Turkey, sailing to
Australia and then on to Dire Dawa, Ethiopia, where she spent the
next 55 years running a business, raising John and singing in the
church choir from time to time.