If you were to ask me what song is in my head as we close 2011, the song is “It’s so Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday.” Cheesy how pop culture is always in my head. My father’s death is the reason for the song in my head. The doctor had given him 3 to 5 years after he was diagnosed with Pick’s disease, he died in the fourth year. The last time I heard his voice was in 2009 when he asked Atil the time Saat kac?. The past 4 years have been spent under the dark cloud of my father’s illness and Troy having CF–they were both diagnosed in 2007. But kids sure do see the brighter side of things. My father’s illness didn’t stop Troy from communicating with him–from the time he yelled “Habuz! Habuz!” when my Dad walked away from the group (Troy was just 1.5) to the letters he wrote his Dede this past October. 
I told Troy of my father’s death and he said, more than once, “I loved your Dad I am going to miss him.”
Thanks to everyone who attended my father’s funeral on December 25 and continue to send in their condolences. This obituary will be up until 2013:
http://memorialwebsites.legacy.com/yavuz/homepage.aspx
We lost two other very close family members in 2011. Atil’s grandmother, Sevim Aksu, to pancreatic cancer on November 6 and my grandmother’s sister, Semiha Pistar, on December 14 to age related complications. Both of these amazing women were from the brightest era of modern Turkey. They are the reasons we have ties to our roots. Plus they both knit so many shawls and scarves and vests for us, who else in the family will do that?
We remember these loved ones as we enter the new year. Happy new year to you!
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