title: ...
form: text; letter
13.10.2000
Karşıyaka
Dear Hakan;
I am Yıldız, daughter of Ms. Didar who was your neighbor next door in Alaybey quarter of Karşıyaka. I was your elder teacher and taught you of English, "sit down, stand up, open the door".
I taught thousands of students in my career. Those who left the deepest traces in my mind were the ones who had formed the folkloric dance group, and your family’s children. When I was a 16-year-old high school student, you were a 4-years-old, intelligent, lovely, warm, affectionate child who always questioned and observed what happened around him. Our house was a single-story building with a garden, yours was a flat in the apartment building next door. What I remembered of you the most was your asking “Auntie, my mum cooked meatballs of baby food, what did you cook?” every afternoon standing in your balcony. Then you started at the school, and I admired how fast you could learn. You were very careful and meticulous. I think your mother, my beloved honorary mother Nazire, contributed to it. I call her my mother, because it doesn’t require to be given birth by a woman to call her mother. In all my youth, while I was marrying and after I married, your mother did much more than real aunts could do. With this opportunity I give my regards to her. And I had had great conversations with your late father. May he rest in peace! Your elder brother Gökhan was my friend for the movies, and your younger brother Ayhan was my student...Your family was very special for me, and they will always remain so. Dear Hakan, I am proud of you every time I hear your successes. And while I say “It was apparent when you were a baby that you would be successful in life”, I feel happy to have seen your babyhood. I wish from the heart you would continue your successes. May all your days be happy, joyous and healthy.
Yıldız Ertem Şenyürekli
