Memories of ...

Late last week Senol's grandmother passed away.  So everyone is a bit emotional and exhausted around here.    Last weekend, Senol, along with many other family members took her back to Sinop for her funeral.  In a small village near Sinop is where she spent most of her life - Senol's family village.  Basically a few houses in the middle of beautiful forest.   She didn't know how old she was, but knew that she was alive when Turkey became a republic, which was 1923.     Since Senol's Uncle (her son) died 3 months ago, she was never the same.  She passed away surrounded by loving family.

She liked to look out of the window, watching the world go by - and especially liked visits to our place, where she could watch the ships sailing past.  We didn't talk that much, Grandma and I - with my accented Turkish, her hard of hearing and speaking Turkish peppered with Georgian it was an uphill battle!  But I remember her when we first met, squeezing my hand so tightly and giving me a look that I knew was kind hearted and meant 'you are welcome here.'  Once she told me about one of her children - they all went out together to a wedding together and when they got home her child died and they didn't know why.  More often she would tell me about when she was young, how she loved to ride horses and pick the chestnuts from the trees.    We'll miss her a lot, but we know that she is at peace now.