Misakian Brothers Misak/Peter

Misak was born in Parchanj, Kharpert in June 1907 and was named after his father’s grandfather. He was an infant when his father returned to America in 1908, leaving him with his older sister, Altoon, and his mother Shooshan. After his mother was killed in 1915 and his sister forced into a Turkish marriage, Misak found his way to an orphanage where he stayed until he was a teenager. He traveled to Constantinople, arriving in 1922, and stayed with Benyamin (Apisag’s brother) until he left for North America, arriving in 1925.

He spent his early years in America living and working in the greater Boston area, at first staying with Parchanji families in Cambridge. During this time, he became the godfather to Alice DerTorosian. He moved to Whitinsville some time before his father’s death in 1940. During WWII, Misak served in the Army in Europe from 1941 to 1943. He returned from war to Whitinsville, living in the family home with Apisag and his younger brothers. He worked at the Whitin Machine Works, retiring in 1971. In the early 1960’s, Misak journeyed back to Parchanj and visited his sister Altoon whom he had not seen in over 50 years. Misak never married but enjoyed the visits of his extended family and doted on his Misakian nieces and nephews.

Misak lived with Apisag and his brother Peter in Whitinsville, and after Peter built a home in neighboring Douglas, they all moved there. Kheyma dinners with brother Archie and his children were every-other-Sunday events, with Apisag readying the kheyma for lunch and porov kufta for dinner. Misak always had nickel bottles of Coca Cola for his young nieces and nephews, who marveled at how their uncle ate his kheyma sandwich. Misak sandwiched his kheyma between a piece of wet patz hatz and a slice of American white bread – in a way, this sandwich represented the two portions of his life.

Some years after Apisag’s death, Misak moved to an apartment in a senior community in Whitinsville and spent the last few months of his life in a nursing home in Millbury Massachusetts. He died in November 1991 and is buried in the Misakian family plot with his father, stepmother and half-brother Peter at Pine Grove Cemetery in Whitinsville.

Peter, the youngest Misakian son, was already an uncle when he was born in December 1927 (his niece Araxie was born 3 ½ months before him to his half-sister Armenoohi). Peter was raised in Whitinsville, graduated from Northbridge High School, and attended the University of Massachusetts after his military service from 1945 to 1947. Like his older brother Archie, Peter served in the Navy in the Pacific theater, where he was stationed in Guam and the Mariana Islands. He returned to Whitinsville after completing his service and after his college studies, lived with his mother Apisag and brother Misak in the house on Border Street in Whitinsville. Peter built a home in Douglas Massachusetts and moved there with his mother and brother Misak in the 1960’s.

Peter’s enduring romance with Rose Sarkisian (nee Shahinian) of Watertown, Massachusetts began in 1963. In 1987, Peter married Rose at the Holy Ascension Armenian Church in Trumbull, Connecticut with brother Archie serving as his best man. Peter had no children of his own. Peter and Rose lived in both Watertown, Massachusetts and Florida, enjoying visits with Rose’s children and grandchildren. Peter died in Florida in May 2011 and is buried in the Misakian family plot at Pine Grove Cemetery in Whitinsville, Massachusetts. Rose died in December 2019.