Ayhan had to return to Turkey to serve in the army. For me it was a good opportunity to check if our  relationship was serious. Ayhan was very serious about us. When he finished his army service, he invited me to come to Turkey. This created a dilemma for me. My parents knew I had a boyfriend, because I received letters from Ayhan. However, they had never met him which meant that I could not simply accept his invitation to come to Turkey. My parents would never approve because they did not meet him in person, and we were neither engaged nor married. I knew I loved Ayhan, but it was a great leap to leave everything I knew, to get married and to move to Turkey. I did not know anything about Turkey. It was like jumping into the unknown…

So, I decided to come for a visit first. To have a holiday, stay for a week, get to know the country, see how I feel. I came with a friend. We stayed in Istanbul for two nights, and then we travelled around. Ayhan came to meet us with his brother, so my friend would not feel awkward. We enjoyed ourselves so much, that we lost all sense of time. We forgot to check our plane tickets, and found out we missed our flight back. Instead of staying one week as we planned, we stayed for a fortnight. It was quite clear we are going to stay together. The next step was to meet my parents.

Photo by Renee Fisher