Who is Nafina (Shekerimedjian) (Chilinguirian) Aroosian from Black Dog of Fate: A Memoir and what is their importance?

Nafina Aroosian is Peter Balakian's maternal grandmother. She speaks little of her past, but like other Aroosian women, she loves to cook, and takes pride in her family and household. It isn't until after her death that Peter learns of his grandmother's past and her tremendous courage...... that her family was slaughtered in Armenia in 1915, that she, her husband, and her two young children survived but were forced on one of the many death marches. Her husband died on the march, but Nafina was eventually able to move to the United States where she remarried. Nafina put the past behind her, but it never stopped affecting her, even to the point where she suffered a breakdown following the bombing of Pearl Harbor.