merve busy teaching the girls dance steps...
the two guys in my heart... father n son... after playing football in the living room (at 11pm!!)
...luckily our neghbour downstairs is muyessa yenge... halil's aunty! heheheeh
I really really missed u all! a mumbler who doesnt mumble and cannot stumble on her words n the grammar of the language is not really a fulfilled mumbler eh?... how was ur bayram?
how was our Bayram? Well... u could say that this year is different... For one thing, we are minus one member of the family. Normally, in the morning, after the raya prayer, the male in the family will go to the slaughtering place and will select a few sheeps and get the man in chargeto slaughter them... later some of the meat will be brought home... cut and will be cooked into the kurban bayram traditional kavurma dish .
This year however, due to the recent event, all the siblings decided to just pay the kurban money to the bodies in charge and not get the animals slaughtered in the morning as we always do every year... instead, the kavurma was made from the meat bought from the supermarket.
Alhamdulillah, this bayram went off with the least tears. We all got together at baba's place...This year, mahture yenge decided to stay in istanbul for bayram... so next to the traditional kavurma, she cooked other dishes as well..she was acting as the elder one in place of baba this year...
There is a tradition in this family.... normally after the death of a person, the first eid/bayram after that, people will come to visit his house.. as a way of saying condolences i suppose. That is why this year, all the zaim siblings, for the first 3 days of bayram, we all simply stayed at baba's place from morning till night.... entertaining the guests. We also somehow knew deep down that.... this might be the last time we all have our bayram there....Allah knows.. the zaim siblings will decide what will happen to the apartment...
So many things will change after this.Baba's place used to be the place where everyone meets during the weekends. After 2 or probably 3 months, that place will just be a memory.....
For me especially, every bayram,with meşe.... we used to take turns serving baba's guests. I am used to staying there for every bayram.. my kids too... it is a tradition i am used to eversince anne died... esp since my own family is far away... i dont have many doors to knock for bayram...It was easier to just serve baba's guests...the next bayram....such matter will be just a thing in the past.... the rule was simple: baba was the head of the family. People came to visit him. Not the other way around. Now that baba is gone... i guess we have to do the door knocking now...visiting relatives who used to visit baba...soo many changes......one step at a time, eh?
InsyaAllah slowly, things will go back to normal... for now, there are so many legal things the zaim siblings have to settle...i really hope they will settle those things soon coz the sooner things r settled..the faster things can go into a routine...the faster things will go back to normal...
the hospital bills? well.. remember the suite room baba had stayed for 2 weeks...?? If we are to pay the bills.... well.. frankly speaking... the family will have to sell a house for the bills.. i mean.. the operation cost... the medicines.... a suite in a private hospital?? that cant be cheap!...But the hospital demanded zero lira in payment...saying that it was an honour for them to serve sabahattin zaim...it was their last service to him....they did everything sincerely.... Allah Razı olsun... This is a simple act where money is not everything eh? that in this world where money is mainly D fucus of life..... honour and heart still matter....that when one had done so much for the people... Allah does repay his deeds even in this life.....in baba's case..free medical attention at the comfort of a king.
As for my beloved... after his mom died... it took him a year to return to his normal self... this time... though he acts cool to the outside world.. i see that he is affected more that before. ...which is normal of course.... he has lost the last link he has to a parent...it will take him more than a year to be normal again.... i hope my love for him will be enough to sustain him somehow...his calm appearance to the outside world doesnt fool me... he is as broken as hatice and baddin r inside....
And i.....i am ok now... i dont have time to be drowned in any form of depression...i am doing everything i can for them....i get my own support too of course...the support i get comes in many forms...in form of my blogging friends.....my family... there was one time... it came in form of Dunkin Donuts!!! (hahaha u know who u r)...ah.. there is nothing more wonderful than to be depressed and to be able to stick my teeth into that sinful weight enchancer sugary donuts! Dear..i blame u for my weight gain so far! hahahahahahahah
*************
Situation 1.
Location: Baba's Apartment.
Time: Bayram/raya/eid.
Ring ring... (conversation in turkish)
mıstık: Hello.
Caller: May i speak to Mr. Sabahattin please?
mistık: *gulped * He is not here.
caller: When will he be there?
mıstık: He wont be here. He died.
caller: when?
mıstık: more than a week ago. May i know who's calling please?
caller: silent.
The line went dead.
hehehehehehe the zaim family truly hope that whoever was at the other side of the line didnt get a heart attack! hehehehe since baba's death was all over the news and local media.. i am assuming that person must be probably out of tune of the latest news or perhaps that person was outside the country...
*******
Situation 2.
Time: Arife gece.. the eve of eid.
I was hugging baddin before putting him to sleep. He suddenly said.
"Anne, dede ya özledim"
(i miss my grandpa)
And so i suggested him that we read the Al fatihah together loudly.....and later…i said my prayer on behalf of baddin …again loudly…
"Ya Allah.. this Al fatihah is Sabahaddin's gift for his grandpa. Please tell his grandpa that baddin misses him. If you allow him, can you please let the grandpa come to his dream please? He needs to see his grandpa"
And all that time baddin's tears started to fall though he tried to control it.
The end result? I dreamt that baba and anne (my mom in law n dad in law) came to our home. They were so happy. I was serving them soup. .everyone was extremely happy that i suddenly woke up smiling. I felt this sensation as if someone just passed by me... a feeling that i was visited... perhaps baba was making his eid rounds?.....poor baddin... he didnt get the dream..i guess i needed to see the dream more than him maybe...Allah knows...
*******
Situation 3.
Location: Hatice's bed
Date: 3rd day of kurban eid.
"Anne, in my dream 3 nights ago, i saw dede (grandpa) and baba anne (grandma) at an arch shaped entrance surrounded with flowers and leaves. Dede was young in my dream. İ rushed to dede and hugged and kissed him. I wanted to say something. But suddenly i woke up and i couldnt tell him what was in my heart."
She started to cry the heartbreaking cry she keeps shedding almost every nite during bed time.
Like in baddin's case.... we both read the Al fatihah loudly. We said our prayers and begged Allah to let her dede appear in her dreams once more so that she could tell him what she wanted to say. But i also reminded her that the next morning, we would be visiting her dede's graveyard. She would be able to say what she wanted to say there. She stopped crying after half an hour.
She didnt see her dede in her dreams.
The next morning, we did visit the graveyard. The zaim family has 2 grave plots. At first, we went to the other family plot where loudly, hatice and baddin read Al fatihah for the souls of those who were laid there. Then, we went to their dede's grave... Again.. 2 siblings read the Al fatihah loudly. It was after that i told both of them to tell their dede and baba anne what were in their minds and hearts. i asked them to empty out their motions there. It was the first time they went there after their grandpa died.Hatice's tears started to flow non stop as her fingers played with the soil of the grandpa's grave... Baddin came to me... asked me to hug him...though he tried to hide it, i saw tears glistening in his eyes.... hatice continued crying as halil read yassin at both of the grave plots...
It was later that we asked them what they had told their grandparents... both said almost the same thing...
both said in their own words….something like..that.....
"dede.... i love you... dede.... i miss you. .... i want to hold and kiss you... but you are inside the ground. I cannot kiss you"
Time will insyaAllah heal the pain in their hearts...though it breaks my heart when hatice keep asking me... when can i kiss my other dede in malaysia or the fact that she is holding on to the picture i gave her of her late dede… as she kisses the picture every night as she sob..…....i dream of that one moment in time when she will be able to finally say goodbye….to stop crying herself to sleep every nite. U can see 4 urself in her bayram Picture.. she doesnt really look like her normally sweet self….
I have talked to her class teacher. I know she has been getting emotional support from her teacher. i am grateful for that. Her teacher has been very supportive of her eversince her dede got sick, taking tabs of her emotional well being. Next to the love, hugs, kisses and the words of comfort i can shower her, i am also making sure that both my kids listen to yasin on the mp3 player during bedtime... with hope that the words of Allah will help them to gain their emotional balance.....praying is all i can do. if u r in my place, what will you do? What steps will u take to comfort ur child??