Alysia Basmajian: In 2 Years, a
Full Life
Alysia
Basmajian and her husband, Anthony, used to marvel to
each other that theirs were lives lived in fast forward.
They became parents at 21, just before the start of their
senior year at the College of William and Mary, when
their daughter, Kaela Grayce, was born. They graduated in
May 2000, were married in June that year, and found jobs
in Manhattan -- he on the floor of the stock exchange,
she as a staff accountant at Cantor Fitzgerald.
This summer their pace seemed to have slowed. They
moved to an apartment in Bayonne, N.J., in August. Mrs.
Basmajian began painting again and her favorite subject
was her daughter. For Kaela's second birthday, on Sept.
2, the little girl received her first bike; the family
spent the day in the park.
At about the time they moved, Mr. Basmajian said, the
couple found a list of life's major stresses and realized
they had done nearly everything on the list within the
previous 18 months. "We'd gotten married, graduated,
raised a child, found a job, moved to a new city," he
said. "It was stressful, but it was O.K. because we faced
it together."
The last item on the list was "the death of someone
you love."
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