Birthday party

In this photograph my daughter is on her birthday with the children of the neighborhood.  My mother-in-law Lucy Arguete, my husband and my mother can be seen in the picture too.

I prepared wonderful birthdays for my daughter.  The neighbors, the cousins would come.  I would go to Beyoglu on every birthday (The favorite shopping street in Istanbul.  Stores were lined on both sides of the sidewalk.  Famous restaurants were lined on this street alongside stores with European merchandise.  Movie theatres were in Beyoglu too.  Women do not go out without wearing a hat.  Men went around with canes and felt hats.  The tram was also a mode of transportation), I would buy her a dress from the best store, take her to a studio and have a picture taken.

My daughter Lucy (naturally she carries my mother-in-law's name) was born in 1948.  Just as is the case for every baby, a festive wave spread through the family.  But I remained very weak after the birth, and I would faint all of a sudden while nursing the baby.  My mother came from Bursa and took care of me.  After a while, she had to go back to Bursa because our house was very small.  She took me and the baby, and cared for us in Bursa, returned me to my good health and sent me back to Istanbul.  During this period, my husband used to come to Bursa too in the weekends.

My daughter was a very good student starting in elementary school.  According to her father, her grades had to be 9's or 10's all the time.  It was that way anyways.  After finishing Saint Benoit French Junior High, she entered Notre Dame de Sion (these were schools that were supported by the French government, where the whole curriculum was in French).  My daughter became engaged to Eliya Barokas before she turned 18.  I can say she was obliged to get engaged, to say it more correctly.  My husband investigated and found my daughter's spouse from the commercial circles.  As you can understand, she married through matchmaking in 1965 in Neve Shalom.