Speaking to One Another - The International Raoul Wallenberg ...

possible by the difference in religion: “We couldn’t get married because of that difference. We separatedin 1950 when my mother died. He said, ‘I’m getting married.’ ‘Well done,’ I said, ‘One in misery is betterthan two.’ His family wouldn’t want it. No way, would they want a gavur girl? My family is very conservative,his family is also very conservative. And we suffered as a result of it. But he said: ‘They were goingto talk for forty days, but they were going to forget on the forty-first. You always focused on the issueof religion.’”Although she married another man and moved to Istanbul, Vera never forgot her first love: “However Istill cannot forget. That’s for sure.” Years later, after both had married and raised children, she decidedto visit him in Ankara: “I am curious, I want to hear his voice. I called the office. ‘Ok’ he said, ‘come tomorrow.’I went to his office. We sat there face to face. ‘You,’ he said, ‘packed your bags and went to Istanbul.You left all the memories here to me. Are you happy?’ And one day he called me. I got up andwent to the Çırağan Hotel. He’s performing there. He sang a song: ‘I didn’t love you just to forget you.’”65