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This is the first photograph taken after Luna and I got engaged. We were on our way to Florya beach. I was a soldier then. But I did not look anything like I was in the military. (His wife speaks) Yasef doesn’t at all. We were engaged, we are at my older sister’s house. Delicious food was prepared, of course the groom is coming to the house. His mother-in-law prepares lamb. He hated lamb, he doesn’t even like the smell. He came and sat at the table. Brain was very popular then. He ate it but made it a sandwich in his mouth. A piece of bread, then brain, then another piece of bread, and water, he swallows it like medicine. His nostrils started flaring, he is evidently forcing himself to eat. And then lamb follows. Oh my gosh, I said, what are we going to do, we can’t say anything, because it is his first time. He quietly whispered to me, I won’t be able to eat the lamb at all. Because he had promised me. I will start eating meat after I am married. That was the condition. You don’t eat meat, we cannot get along. I will start eating meat after I am married. He was trying to prove that to me. But he could not prove it. But he used to eat eggs with soujouk by force all the time to prove himself to me. We were married but after we got married he said, gosh, I cannot eat it. But we did not eat nonkosher meat. We ate kosher meat. I would pressure him, you promised me, why don’t you eat. I cannot eat, what can I do.
I did my national service in Denizli during 1959-60. While I was in the military, I got engaged on May 27th, 1960. I returned to Edirne in 1962. Before I left for the military, I was working in my father's business. I got married and started working. I took over the business which was the sale of auto tires in 1962 completely. I still do this work. We also had a franchise for Mobil. Later my father retired.
My wife's brother Mehahem Razon was my classmate. We grew up together, with her older brother. We were children from the same neighborhood, our houses were very close. The spark happened from there.
My wife Luna Romano was born in Edirne on August 25th, 1944. She studied in Shehit Asim school. She went to junior high and highschool in Edirne. They went out with the same group of friends for years. They would get together at homes on weekends, hold parties. My wife's family are people who are loved and respected in Edirne. Today we still continue our friendship with some of her friends in Istanbul.
Our wedding was a little sad. My wife's father had passed away before the wedding. We were in mourning because of that. In our family, mothers and fathers are above everything. We were raised in formality, but attachment was more prevalent in my wife's family. In a family where everyone is so close, our wedding took place in an atmosphere of melancholy due to the absence of the father. Normally one would organize an evening for a wedding. We could not have the wedding even though we were wealthy. We were going to have fun but there would be sorrow in us. We married on September 9th, 1962 in Edirne Synagogue, we went to Istanbul by train that night, we stayed at the Hilton hotel.
My older daughter Ines was born in 1964, and in 1973, my younger daughter Sima.
