raison d’etre: 

reason for the existence of, the rational ground for, purpose of, justification for anything.     That's how one dictionary defines the driving force behind Lida's existence: her reason for being a universe of quintessential love, love pure and unadulterated, that never wanes.     The love might wobble and hobble a bit, in the face of adversity and affliction, but it never dies.     Lida loves everyone, indiscriminately, the old and the young, the black and the white, although she has a soft spot in her heart for the children and the disabled. And for the animals - a love whose spark was lit in her by Francis of Assisi.     Her heart is so tender that whenever she sees a sick child, or a handicapped person, the tears start flowing. Without the least compunction, with no thought to the puerile strictures and uninspired laws society has imposed upon people who yearn to be their brother's keeper, she will drop everything she is doing and rush to offer the injured person her love, sympathy and understanding.     She might know nothing about first aid or CPR, but the warmth of her caring and her compassion would be enough for most.     Her love is a gift she bestows freely, unasked, with joy. Some have accepted it with appreciation and have reciprocated, others have abused it and some have rejected it.     Is it because they do not understand or because they are afraid? Or is it simply because there is no place in their heart for love? Perhaps, due to some flaw of nature in them, they believe themselves unloved, and therefore incapable of accepting that they themselves have the capacity to love.     To these tortured souls, she would say: "You were created in the image of God who breathed His spirit in you. Therefore you are endowed, even before you are born, with the capacity to love. For it is like the air you breathe."     She would like this love to be like the rain that falls on the just and unjust alike. Or like the rays of the sun that fall on the good and bad alike. Although she realizes that there is no such thing as good or bad.     "We all have a core of goodness in us," she would proclaim. "If we only take the trouble to uncover it and bring it to fruition."     And when, on occasion, her own love is rejected, she does not harden her heart. Forgiveness comes to her naturally.     "What is there to forgive?" she says. Although there is a consciousness of a wrong being committed, there is no desire to seek vindictiveness or nourish any thoughts of revenge. There is no place for nurturing hatred and anger because your heart is so full of love there is no place for anything else. There is only a feeling of sadness.     Like a lotus flower that grows into beauty, purity and innocence in the middle of the slime, unmindful of the evil and malice around her, Lida walks unperturbed by any negative feelings, any ill-will, any desire whatsoever to hurt or harm anyone, opening her heart, her mind and her soul to all that is good on this earth.     Because she has a beautiful heart, she loves everything that is beautiful. And for her, everything is beautiful. In her life, there is no ugliness, except the ugliness of evil. And because she has never known evil, her beauty of soul and of heart will never fade.     She wears the perennial face of a child. Here there is no deceit. When she looks at you, she sees nothing but good and beautiful there. She is totally incapable of deceit or of contemplating evil. A soul that is enfolded and engulfed in beauty. Beauty that understands beauty. Beauty that generates beauty.       With music, a passion that enriches her life, as the food of love, what more can a person want for a meaningful life?     But Lida can not live life to the full - because she has an affliction that has robbed her life of that rarefied quality others take for granted.     Yet, despite the agony and the tears, she knows how to laugh. She has a contagious sense of humor that can trigger a laugh at the drop of a hat. The laughter is a pure expression of the joy she experiences in sharing with others.     She loves company for she is sociable to a fault. And she takes delight in entertaining. When the tales are finished, and it is time for coffee, for each session must inevitably end in the traditional cup of Turkish coffee, she will volunteer to read your fortune.     Perhaps, as she gazes at the swirls and whorls she depicts something with that inner eye she possesses. Something others cannot see. And she can be pretty accurate in her divinations.     "Here," she says, showing you a spiral at the edge of the cup, as if trying to prove that what she is saying is not just hogwash. "Can you see the stairs climbing up? You are going to realize your dream. It's very clear."      Her own dream always been one, really: like any other girl, to live a happy life, to have the love of a good man, marriage, children.      She has never been obsessed with the mania to possess things. Apart from a beautiful soul, a joyous heart, and her dreams, she has and wants, nothing.     Material things have no place in her world, and money she cares little about.  

IIn Memoriam

In loving memory of Lida Hagopian, a gem of purest ray serene, an innocent soul, born in the hallowed Old City of Jerusalem, whose footsteps also echoed in the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula, and on the sunswept sidewalks and distant shores of Australia.