Remembering Robabeh joon

Reza and Razieh  Mohseni were the parents of four girls; Havah, Rokhsareh, Robabeh and Sakineh. They had a son also, but the son died young. The family had much land and many assets.Grandpa Reza was a very gentle man and was a very generous person. Grandma Razieh seemed to want to rule the world and could be rather dictatorial.  The family was very comfortably off until Reza died. The family still managed okay until Razieh began to lose money while carrying on the business that her husband had previously managed.  Nature took a huge toll on the family business. Razieh had a large flock of goats. A flash flood wiped out most, up to 90% of the flock. Razieh was a very tough businesswoman and did not seem to know how to compromise. She was hard on her workers. She could be difficult to deal with. Over time, the family lost most of their assets until they were just making ends meet. Razieh and her girls had to work very hard in order to survive. 

As time passed, the girls all married and moved out of their mother’s home to begin their own families. Robabeh would marry Habib Anjomshah. Habib worked for the railroad until  injuring his leg while working. This injury would leave him with a permanent disability and he could no longer work.  Robabeh worked very, very hard to provide for her family. She wove carpets, raised a herd of goats and  helped her husband farm to provide for their family of four children; Fatimah, Abbas, Hossein and Reza. 

Robabehjan worked very hard and raised her children very well. Fatimehjan would marry a farmer and the family  would become very successful raising pistachios. Abbasjan would be very successful as a general contractor and in real estate. Hosseinjan  would also work as a contractor but would gradually become successful raising pistachios. Rezajan would become an engineer and go to Japan to work in the ship-building industry. After a time, he would return to Iran to work as an engineer at the second largest copper mine in the world. 

Robabehjan’s children would not only be hard-working and successful, they would raise  their children to do the same. Many would go to college and earn Masters and Doctorate degrees. Robabehjan’s legacy of hard work was living on through her descendants. 

Robabehjan would continue to work and would continue to help her children and her grandchildren as long as she could. As she grew older, her children began to ask her to stay with them rather than living alone. For the last few years of her life, she would take turns staying with the families of her children.

Sadly, on February 28, 2017, Robabeh Mohseni Anjomshah passed away. She was the last one of Motherjan Rokhsareh Mohseni Hajjafar’s siblings who had remained alive. When she passed away she was 95 years old. I had neither met this lady nor  spoken with her, but I have seen pictures of her. Somehow, the mere image of this small, adorable and sweet looking lady had made me fall in love. I could see a hint of Motherjan in her face also.

Whenever Mohammad would return to Iran to visit, I would ask him to be sure to get pictures of her. I asked him to see if she would share her memories with him and perhaps record them if he could. I suppose that when your visit is short and it has been a long while between visits, the more recent past and the present is what is of most interest to many folks, so it is no wonder that there was no time for the more distant past. But I did get a few pictures and each picture assured me that here was a lady worthy of much love. 

The pictures I have show a very diminutive lady, often wearing a grin that seems to be twice as big as she was. There was such a joy in that grin. That grin alone told me that this lady knew how to love and to love well. Robabehjan’s arms are often lifted in the air in her pics. Mohammad  has  told me that she “talked with her hands”. Roxanna also noticed this when she met Robabehjan. I could see Robabehjan’s loving joy at seeing her “long lost” nephew Mohammad. I could see the tenderness in her hands as she reached for his face, perhaps having to touch him to make sure he was really there after his long absence. I could almost feel her reaching out to me to pull me into her heart. 

Mohammad tells me of visiting Robabehjan with his family when he was younger. He remembers how Robabehjan would excitedly exclaim “Here are Rokhsareh’s children!” as she rushed around putting everything she had on her table so that she could feed them while they visited. He says that she was always generous and would gladly offer all that she had to them.  He never knew a more generous person and her kindness was as great as her generosity. Mohammad used the word angel to describe his Aunt Robabehjan.

Mohammad tells me that when she got older, Robabehjan would sometimes go “on strike”. When on strike, she would remain in her bed. She would not eat, she would not bathe,  she would just lie there in her bed as if waiting to pass from this world. One of these “strikes” was occurring a few years ago right before her nephew Reza Hajjafar was going to visit. 

Now, you guys are aware, that Rezajan had not been back to Iran since leaving it decades ago and Robabehjan had not seen him in all of that time. Mohammad says that when Robabehjan learned that her nephew was going to visit, she ceased her strike, took her shower, fixed her hair and put on new clothes in preparation for the visit of her nephew. She happily reminisced about memories of when she had last seen Rezajan. Her memory of things that had happened so long ago was truly amazing! Seeing her family was very important to Robabehjan; important enough to break a strike!

Our daughter Roxanna went one time with Mohammad  to Iran. She told me of meeting a tiny little lady who beamed a huge grin when she saw Roxanna. Robabehjan  excitedly lifted her arms  and with her hands pointing to Roxanna, pumped her arms up and down as if in emphasis and said, “You are Iran, and Iran is in you!”. And those words make me feel as though I had something in common with Robabehjan. Perhaps that is what seemed to draw me to her. She knew that no matter where we live, no matter how much we know about them or even if we know nothing about them, our ancestors live on somehow through us. We are them, and they are us! 

Sadly, at the end of February 2017, Robabehjan’s last strike ended. This sweetheart who was so small in stature, but so large in presence and heart, passed from this world. I believe that she was greeted by her sister Rokhsarehjan and many other family members who passed on before. I can just imagine them exclaiming, “Here is Robabehjan!”  as they run around a Heavenly table loading it with all she could want.

May God fill the heart of each family member and each friend with His peace and love during this time. Prayers, Peace and Love.