Tag #127821 - Interview #97497 (Sami Schilton)

Sara was born in Istanbul and unfortunately died when she was 17.  Before that she studied at the St. Benoit high school [French Catholic high school in Istanbul].  She studied in the girls’ school.  At that time, girls and boys studied in different schools.  She studied primary school there, too.  She was a very good student.  She spoke excellent French.  Unfortunately, she got tuberculosis and died at 17.  I do not know how she got that disease, there wasn’t any epidemic or anything, but she caught it.  After she got ill, she wouldn’t eat and she got very thin.  I was quite young at the time but I remember, they were trying to cure her.  We used to go to the Italian hospital at Tophane [a district in the European side of Istanbul] to see her.  They tried to save her but they couldn’t.  My mother was terribly affected by the death of her firstborn.  I remember quite well, I was 6 or 7 at the time and I remember the state my mother was in.  They were very difficult times for our family.