I recently lost my father and I wanted to write this eulogy for him. It is a part of my mourning process. I decided to write it in first person as my father was known to be a great orator.I. Ilhan Aksu, ??/??/1922 - 03/11/2009
I was born in the midst of the last great economic depression,
I never knew my birthday as all of our records were lost,
My mother used to say "When you were born there was snow on the ground",
My town was near the then Soviet Georgia and it snowed 6 months of the year,
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I was born to the richest family in town,
As the depression went on, we had lost everything and we had opened a fruit and vegetable stand,
I never forgot those bad old days,
In life, I always had to rely on my own abilities,
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At the age of 12 and on my own, I traveled 100 miles to attend a boarding school, during winter and in the back of an open truck,
After high school, I attended law school and I became the first to finish College in my family,
All of my Professors in the Law School were German Jews who ran to Istanbul from Nazi Germany,
I always remembered them fondly,
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I never practiced law and I could have been anything that I wanted,
Instead I became a merchant (businessman in today's language),
I learned how to make money from international trade by selling live stock to the Russians,
Before I knew it, I was in my late 30s, rich and still unmarried,
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I chose as my wife, one of the most beautiful girls in Istanbul who was 20 years my junior,
She loved me more than anything in life and gave me two sons,
I don't think I have done a good job of expressing my love to her,
I was never comfortable with showing my feelings to anyone,
*** *** ***
My marriage did not last beyond 20 years,
I separated from my wife, but never divorced,
I spend the rest of my life self reliant, again,
And I never found another woman like her, again,
*** *** ***
I did not have many hobbies,
I was best at working hard,
And I tried to work until the day I died,
I died, alone, self reliant and in the midst of the last great economic depression, again.
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written by Nancy Sheehy , April 02, 2009
written by Nancy Sheehy , April 02, 2009
Murat,
A beautiful tribute to your father. Thank you for sharing.
Nancy
Votes: +0
A beautiful tribute to your father. Thank you for sharing.
Nancy
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Response to Eulogy
written by Sharon Inetas , April 02, 2009
written by Sharon Inetas , April 02, 2009
Dear Murat,
Thank you for sharing the essence of your father to us readers. I have always believed the beauty of someone's passing is the charished memories we have of them and the time we take after their passing to reflect, relive, and analyze their life. As many who went through the great depression the difficulty of expressing feelings was the tradeoff to becoming an artful survivor and a master of self reliance. My mother was the same. Murat give yourself this time to morn, but also to celebrate his life and be proud of of the qualities he had that you carry within yourself.
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Thank you for sharing the essence of your father to us readers. I have always believed the beauty of someone's passing is the charished memories we have of them and the time we take after their passing to reflect, relive, and analyze their life. As many who went through the great depression the difficulty of expressing feelings was the tradeoff to becoming an artful survivor and a master of self reliance. My mother was the same. Murat give yourself this time to morn, but also to celebrate his life and be proud of of the qualities he had that you carry within yourself.
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