Most people feel nostalgic about the home in which they spent their childhood, in Mother's case ages 7 through 19. For sure, Mother fondly remembers her home in Giresun, perhaps also because the following 12 years after she left that home, until we as a family arrived in Samsun on May 29, 1949, were rootless and unstable in contrast. So I decided to devote this brief Appendix to a description of this home, based on her description of the same to me. The contents of this Appendix probably will not be of interest to anyone but us.

The house Grandparents owned in Giresun from 1928 to 1937, the town located at about the center of the Turkish Black Sea coastline, was located centrally in town. To the north, towards the Black sea, they had a full view of a tall hill some distance away. To the right of the hill, they could see the ships heading east for Trabzon, towards the Russian border. From the fifth floor and terrace they could also see the ships arriving from Istanbul. Grandfather's office was partly connected to the house at the street level, the third story of the house. The first (basement) floor was used essentially as a storage area for wood and coal, the only fuel in those days. The second floor contained a (Turkish) bath, the laundry room, and a kitchen. To the north, it connected to a terrace decked with flat stones. The terrace led through a walkway to a large garden that was sectioned in part into large square patches in which they grew vegetables. Laundry lines stretched between the poles along the vegetable patches. Several fruit trees and a fig tree dotted the other half of the garden to the north. There was also a chicken coop. Grandmother insisted that everything was kept in immaculate condition, even in the garden. Each fruit tree had its own ladder leaning against it.

The third floor was the street level on the south side of the building facing the street, away from the sea. The living quarters began here. At this level, the house connected, across a walkway, to the one-story building on the east which grandfather used for his office. About half of the office space, towards the street side, served as the waiting room for patients, the other half as the examination room. On the house side, the front portion along the street was sub-divided and rented as a store, a hat shop. The entrance to the home was on the right side of the building along the walkway between the house and the office. Grandfather reached his office from a second door further back.

2nd & 3rd, 4th, and 5th Floor Plans

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