On the very left of the photo you can see my wife’s sister, Ester Koen. My wife, Suzan is sitting third from left. There are a couple of more of our friends and also Ester’s husband Albert. We are at a garden restaurant on the Bosphorus. I am the one taking the photo, so you cannot see me in the picture.
My wife, Suzan, is also from Istanbul. My wife's English was very good, because she was a graduate of the British School in Istanbul (see English High School for Girls). Besides this, her French was also very good. Like I said, we were working at the same firm. We met and went out together. Her mother didn't want me, because of my low income, when we decided to get married. Nevertheless, against everything, we got married in the synagogue in Kuzguncuk, in May 1935. (not the one that is in use today, there was another one on the upper part of Kuzguncuk. I forgot its name.)
My wife’s sister Ester Akkoen, was also born in Kuzguncuk, and she grew up there. Ester used to work at a firm owned by a very rich man named Ahmet Diliboz, who had come from Russia. This man brought with him a lot of pearls, when he was escaping from Russia. He sold them here, and founded this firm. This is the way he used to tell us. This firm was engaged in export and import business. Ester worked as a secretary in this firm, for a few years. Later on she married Albert Eskenazi. They had three children named, Rifka, Suzi, and Moiz. When their children grew up, they emigrated to Israel in 1966. Rifka got married and she chose to be a housewife. Suzi got married, too and had children. She worked at one of the TelAviv branches of the discount Bank for long years. She continued working even after she had her children. She became manager of her department. She is still working at that bank. Ester’s third child, Moiz turned out to be a no-good. He is the black sheep of the family.
We lost Albert in 2002 unfortunately. He is buried in Israel.
All my wife’s siblings have close ties with each other, and love one another. We always liked spending time with each other, and we've always been like siblings. We still talk at least twice a week on the phone with each other, and meet once a year.
