Hello everybody!
I'm going to talk Turkish I promise.
I love Istanbul very much, I'm from Istanbul.
Even if it's not the same Istanbul now, it's still my love.
The Aegean Region is my favourite region though..
There is no comparison anywhere else in the world.
I love the Turkish language,
I'm from Turkey,
But I'm not Turkish... I mean
Yeah I was born there, I was born in Turkey.
My family immigrated from Spain
but they've lived there for a long time.
We're Jewish!
Yes, Sadie's dad,
is Turkish, ALTUG is their surname, can you imagine?
They go all the way back...
Their roots go back to Selanik
They're from Selanik.
Ataturk was betrothed, to your father's, father's mother.
Yes, yes they really pushed them to be together.
However Ataturk at the last minute said:
I'm gonna spend my whole life fighting wars,
It would be a waste for this woman.
So he didn't marry her.
But she was his mother's favourite.
Your grandmother told me this story.
They were very close neighbours.
Ataturk's mother and your grandmother's mother.
1962
December 11th
Summer!
"Incir Reçeli"
I loved it! It's a Turkish movie.
Stuffed Eggplant, I make really well!
Hmm my favourite... There are so many foods that I love..
I don't know I couldn't decide.
Well Sadie was in such a depression in those days,
that whatever she told me I would have accepted at that point.
As long as it would make her come out of that.
This is some advice for Gay people, go into a depression,
so that your parents can accept you faster.
I'm just kidding!
I didn't even know what being Gay was at that point.
I didn't understand what it was.
I thought that maybe it was a temporary thing.
But I loved my daughter so much that
whatever it was I was accepting of it.
No problem whatsoever.
I began to learn about it.
I read a lot of books about it.
That helped a lot... Reading those books.
After that I saw her,
I saw that she was very happy.
Okay, that's it!
That's it she found her own truth.
When you find your own truth you become the happiest person in the world.
Because she found her own truth...
As a mother I could not be any more proud.
That's it, she found herself, yayyy!! I did it!
Well, mothers and fathers are full of so much love I think.
I mean be brave, speak your truth without rebeling too much.
Try explaining to them that this is not a strange thing, give them books.
Try to explain this to them and they will accept it.
Eventually they will.
If there are cultural pressures on them,
and if they are very narrow minded,
they will be afraid of accepting this.
Rejecting you will feel easier for them.
But if they are a little bit more open-minded,
mothers and fathers will accept this.
If they love you,
if they see that you feel relaxed after figuring this out,
they will definitely accept you, and continue to love you.
I mean this is what I think.
How and why did Sadie go to Canada?
This is such a difficult question...
I'm a person who values personal freedom a lot.
She came to Canada to be more free.
And I told her to go, I wanted her to do this.
She wanted to go to school there when she turned 15.
And we had this opportunity, of becoming Canadian we were already on that road.
We told her: "You go first, and then we will follow you."
I was a bit surprised.
I didn't think it would last very long to tell you the truth.
I never imagined that they would share such a deep connection.
I thought that within a year, because of Paola not Sadie, that they would break up.
I thought that her reality would get in the way of this relationship.
But I saw such an unexpected courage coming from Paola.
They are very happy together, they have a beautiful relationship,
they have a very deep bond.
Their love reminds me a little bit of the love between Mevlana and Sems.
So just as I didn't react badly to this, I just watched them.
And after seeing what was going on, now I'm envious that I don't have this kind of love.
I'm envious!
So you didn't find it strange?
No, no, I didn't find it strange, there's nothing to find strange.
I'm kind of slowly sliding down here.
As you can see I'm a bit of a dinosaur, I've lived a lot of years...
I'm not gonna say old but..
Well, I didn't think about that aspect at all, I was just talking about myself.
I've had a lot of jobs in my life.
I studied in the Conservatory,
then I went into the movie business, and became a producer,
I put out a magazine,
I worked in a marketing agency,
At last after I gave birth to Sadie,
with Yaşar Nuri Öztürk, we read the "Kuran"
I did the directing for that, that was a beautiful job.
And after that,
to be with my husband and to be with my kids,
I became the general manager in the Immigration Consultancy business that we created.
Yes.
Thank you for requesting me, and accepting me by the way.
I really enjoyed it!
At least say something in Turkish to me don't leave it like that!
You're doing all the Turkish translations.
Ahh yes!
But I'm sorry it takes a week!
I have a lot of things to do
and just for you I'm doing these subtitles.
But please excuse me if it's late one week.
But by the way to all the english speaking viewers
I thank you so much, there are such beautiful comments!
You understand these two people so well!
From the heart, I thank you!