İzmir: Surprise, Mom … We’re Here!

Although I was born in the US, I grew up in İzmir, Turkey. Some forty years ago, Mui and I were married in İzmir, and soon after, we made the permanent move to the US.

We’ve been back and forth practically every year since to visit family. Flying in and out mostly, but on a few occasions, we departed by ship out of İstanbul. This was our first time arriving in İzmir by ship, however, so it was a special occasion for us … especially doing so on Insignia’s maiden call to the city.

What was even more special today was that my sister, Aylin, and I had made arrangements to surprise mom. Aylin and her daughter-in-law, Serenay, conspired to get mom out to a café for brunch. Unbeknownst to her, we were waiting for them at the café. We had a delightful reunion and meal, joined also by Murat, my brother-in-law, and Hakan, my nephew.

After brunch, we all went to mom’s place where we had an afternoon of catching up. From the non-stop chatter, you would think that we had not visited them for four months just last fall.

Aylin and Serenay had a surprise for me as well … a birthday celebration redux. My birthday was actually on the 11th and we had already marked the occasion while in Haifa! I enjoyed the surprise birthday cake … after making sure that two celebrations within just a couple of days didn’t mean that I would be adding two years to my age ;-)Read more