Arlene Ayvazian of Bayside: Loved Ditch Plains Beach, gardening
Arlene Ayvazian, a Bayside resident, loved to spend time with her grandchildren. Credit: Adam Ayvazian
When she wasn’t in her beloved backyard garden in Bayside, Arlene Ayvazian could usually be found at her Montauk Manor condo reading or listening to the waves at Ditch Plains Beach.
Ayvazian and her husband of 20 years, Peter Marchisello, would rent the condo on weekends during the summer. She looked forward to the drive out east on the Long Island Expressway.
“She just loved the beach and being out on Long Island,” said her son, Adam Ayvazian, 46, of Mahopac.
Ayvazian died April 14, her 74th birthday, of COVID-19 at New York University Hospital in Manhattan, her family said.
Ayvazian was born in Astoria, Queens, and, aside from a brief stay in Jackson Heights, lived in Bayside for her entire life. When her father, Tom Magliochetti, died in 2011, Ayvazian moved back into her childhood home. She and Marchisello renovated the home, and Ayvazian was able to keep up her father’s garden, which sprouted cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes, string beans and peppers.
“She also had fig trees back there that my grandfather planted when she was a kid and they’re still producing figs,” said son, Brett Ayvazian, 49, a lieutenant colonel in the Army. “[We] used to love going over there to get fresh figs. She would pick all of them and wash them and give them to anyone who came by.”
When her two sons were young, Ayvazian worked as a bartender and waitress, mainly at One Station Plaza in Bayside. Later, she worked in the cafeteria at P.S. 159 in Bayside, making lunches and supervising the kitchen staff for more than 15 years.
“Her handwriting was meticulous, so she did the menu board,” said Marchisello, 70. “For the little kids, she would draw pictures. They loved it.”
Ayvazian was a doting grandmother who loved playing with her three grandchildren. She learned how to make stained glass as an adult, which she would give to family and friends as gifts.
In addition to Marchisello and her two sons, Ayvazian is survived by sister Barbara Podhaskie of Valley Stream and three grandchildren. Ayvazian was buried at Flushing Cemetery on May 2. The family will have a memorial at a later date, Adam Ayvazian said.
