- Date Of Birth: October 7, 1944
- Date Of Death: November 6, 2012
- State: North Carolina
Alla Georgiyevna Karapetyan, 68, died on November 6th, 2012, in Charlotte, NC, with her family by her side. The cause was thyroid cancer. She was born on October 7th, 1944 in Baku, Azerbaijan to mother Yuliya Nunikyan and father Gurgen Karapetyan. Her final days were spent surrounded by family, and although she left us too sudden and too soon, she left a positive impact on anyone she touched throughout her life.
She attended college in Baku and had a degree in economics. She met her husband, Aleksandr Sarkisov, at her workplace in Baku and married him in 1975. They were married for 37 years. She spent several years residing in Sevan, Armenia. Upon arriving to the United States in 1992, she was determined to learn English and have a stable job to be able to provide for her family. She took accounting courses at a local college but ended up working in the human resources field until her passing.
She is survived by her husband, Aleksandr, two daughters Yelena Clark (36) and Yuliya Guia (31), Yuliya’s spouse and Alla’s son-in-law, Marques Guia (38), and 5 grandchildren – Alexa (6), Milana (4), Renata (2), Vivian (7 months) and the last grandchild and the only boy in the family Maksim (4 months). Also survived by her sister, Nelly Aleksanyan. Although the family is saddened that their beloved grandma won’t be able to watch her grandkids grow up, they are comforted knowing that she will be watching them from heaven.
Alla was a very nurturing woman, family was everything to her. She loved when the whole family got together at their house often. Sometimes that meant family staying over for a night after a holiday dinner, even though everyone lived nearby. Other times she’d ask daughters to stop by with the kids, knowing there would be chaos having 5 grandchildren between ages of 6 years and newborn getting together under one roof. There was laughter and happiness in her house, and she enjoyed it greatly despite the mess created by her granddaughters as they ran all around the house. But it was family and that superseded everything else to her. She figured out that stickers solved many toddler differences, and always had some on hand … a great way to put all those address labels to use. Grandkids loved going to ‘booba’ or ‘boolya’s’ house as they often called her. It was a highlight of the week to get the family together, have dinner and watch kids play together at grandma/grandpa’s house.
She liked being independent and keeping her mind active. Going to work was a positive thing, not a dreaded chore, even though it meant getting up early and sitting in traffic. It provided a routine and an opportunity to see not just her coworkers, but her friends. Friends that would listen to her stories, and look at the pictures of the grandkids that she was so proud of.
She tried to keep up with the newer generations, watch videos on her laptop, occasionally use social media, and once she got the texting down, that was a point of no return. We loved the fact that she always checked on her daughters daily, making sure we were ok and the grandkids were fine. It was her caring ways that she always put others before herself, making sure all close to her were taken care of.
Before she got her driver’s license, her family gave it a shot trying to teach her how to drive ourselves. But when Alla had to look down to see which pedal she should use for braking while approaching a downhill stop sign and looking down, we realized we were not the teaching material and that official lessons would be best. We were proud of her when she passed her driver’s test and was able to drive a car herself.
Some of her favorite things that were dear to her were opera (especially Russian opera “Eugene Onegin”), attending symphonies, listening to classical music, and musicals (“Phantom of the Opera”). When she couldn’t convince her husband to come along to a show, she often asked her daughters to come with her and tried to instill the love for classical music in her children as well.
She loved attending St. Sarkis Armenian Apostolic Church in Charlotte, NC and staying active in the Armenian community. Her faith was important to her. She looked forward to every Sunday and every special event at the church. It made her happy to see her friends there and they became her extended family through the years.
She also loved watching Russian soap operas and movie series. Even in her final days at the hospital, her daughters setup her laptop on her hospital bed and turned on her favorite Russian show for her to make sure she doesn’t miss a single episode.
She loved traveling, whether it’s to see old friends or new places. Her favorite places were Russia, Europe, and California.
Alla enjoyed a good meal and appreciated Armenian and Middle-Eastern cuisine. Her day wasn’t complete without a nice cup of hot tea with Russian chocolates or her favorite cake.
Her favorite colors were browns & tans. You could never go wrong with giving her anything gold or brown. If we were ever at a loss as to what to give her for a gift, that was a sure bet that she would enjoy it.
She was a very lighthearted person, not holding grudges, forgiving and forgetting even when someone mistreated her.
