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My parents met through a matchmaker but I do not know the details. They never told me anything about it. Just that the matchmaker proposed my mother as a very eligible young woman of very good family. Then they got married, I do not know when or where. They probably got married at the synagogue, I don’t know. After the wedding they lived at a house opposite Pera Palas [a very old and famous hotel in Tepebasi, very close to the Grand Rabbinate in the European side of Istanbul]. My father’s business was in Tahtakale [a business district in the European side of Istanbul].
My father always wore suits and his shoes had laces always. They were some kind of boots with laces. He also wore a hat called “republique”. [top hat] But before that, the men used to wear the fes [3] before Ataturk [4] and his reforms [5]. My mother had kept my father’s fes, with which he used to go out.
My mother used to read a lot. That is why there used to be a lot of books in our home. She used to read books in French, all sorts of books. After my father died, she started reading books about diseases. She got obsessed with illnesses, heart diseases, other diseases. She would read these all day long and would not go out.
My father always wore suits and his shoes had laces always. They were some kind of boots with laces. He also wore a hat called “republique”. [top hat] But before that, the men used to wear the fes [3] before Ataturk [4] and his reforms [5]. My mother had kept my father’s fes, with which he used to go out.
My mother used to read a lot. That is why there used to be a lot of books in our home. She used to read books in French, all sorts of books. After my father died, she started reading books about diseases. She got obsessed with illnesses, heart diseases, other diseases. She would read these all day long and would not go out.
Location
Bakırköy/İstanbul
Türkiye
Interview
Suzi Sarhon