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We met with my wife Eleni Langada, we called her Milena, in 1945, in Arnavutköy [A district on the shores of Rumeli by the Bosphorus] at a gathering of friends. Our friendship developed and we were married on February 3rd, 1950 at the Beyoglu Evlendirme Dairesi(Public Wedding Office). Our wedding witnesses were Prof. Henri Prost and the famous attorney Resat Saffet Atabinen who was a graduate of the Paris Sorbonne University, and the headclerk at the Lausanne agreements. All of my colleagues at the municipality of Istanbul where I worked honored our civil marriage with their presence.
My wife, being of Greek descent, was born on May 24th, 1924 in Bebek [A neighborhood on the shores of Rumeli on the Bosphorus]. Her father who was a merchant of electrical installation, was named Nikola, her mother Aleksandra, and she was the only child of the family since her sibling François had died at a very young age. She lived in Arnavutköy, in Beyoglu and Nisantasi. I lost my wife, who had been involved in the leadership and public matters of the community, suddenly on April 23rd 2006. She had gone to Taksiyarhis church on Sunday morning for Easter service. We had decided to meet at lunctime, after the service to go eat together. An unexpected telephone call delivered the sad news. It seems she felt bad in the church, they sat her down on a chair and called a doctor, but she left for eternity before the doctor could make it. We said our final goodbyes to her on April 26th, Wednesday after the religious services in the same church. You can appreciate how hard and difficult it is for me to lose my life partner with whom I spent more than a half century in a happy partnership
