Larisa Hovsepyan, the mother who adopted 19 children

Larisa Hovsepyan is a heroine mother who adopted and raised 19 children of different nationalities. Widowed after half a year of marriage, Larisa decided never to remarry, and a few years later she decided to adopt a child. In Soviet Armenia children were hardly ever abandoned, so there was no need for orphanages. To adopt her first son Larisa travelled to Lithuania, and so, one after another, she gave a mother's love to 19 children from different corners of the Soviet Union.

Larisa Hovsepyan died on 17 December 2012, surrounded by her 19 children. The funeral took place in her native Yerevan, and hundreds of strangers brought flowers to her grave.

The photograph shows an elderly woman in glasses seated on a bench, surrounded by 2 young women and 5 children and teenagers.