After five decades of silence I find it difficult to limit my biography  and thoughts to the format of the yearbook…so bear with me please if you are interested to know what has happened to me since I said good bye  to you all in 1959.

Back in Turkey, I had to complete my own high school, as while I was a senior at SWHS, I was considered a junior at home.  Thus another senior year and another graduation. Father was appointed to a post in Lebanon and we moved to Beirut in 1961 not knowing I was to spend twenty years there and have permanent links for the rest of my life.

I actually wanted to be an agricultural engineer but the American University of Beirut (AUB) did not accept female students in that faculty at that  time. Instead I got involved with political science and economics.  Following graduation I got married with Joe – a Lebanese fighter and later commercial pilot.

For five years worked for UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees) in the ‘Contributions Department’ responsible for channeling  donations transformed into concrete projects in the refugee camps such as building schools, health centers, provision  of scholarships for students,etc .  I had a chance to visit most of the camps in Gaza, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and the West Bank to see the actual realisation of the projects we made (most razed to ground since by bombs).  I learned what it is to be a refugee.

I think it was 1971 that I came to US again to attend a meeting at UN.  I located and visited Helen and bumped into Robert in a New York bus! We were the only passengers. Afterwards I lost contact with all as the clouds of civil war had darkened the Lebanese horizon.

The following years, we were never to be at the helm of our lives again.  Survival was our only target and achievement.  We were shelled, bombed, Joe was kidnapped and tortured, our residences were destroyed and occupied.  We were evacuated a couple of times and finally ended back in Turkey temporarily, we thought, in 1982. We are still here.  During the civil war, we lived without electricity, often lacked running water but  continued work and walked our dogs in fields that were mined (unknowingly of course).  Having quit UNRWA, I worked as the executive asst of the Representative of the British Council (not the Consulate) helped  promote British art and education in all forms .  Joe kept on flying in between bombs.

Back in Turkey I started work with IFU (Danish Industrialization Fund for Developing ountries) as their advisor in Turkey and helped with feasibility studies and/or development of various projects, finding local partners and  when  the companies were formed, representing IFU on the boards. (projects varied from integrated chicken and meat production, lawn seed production, fish farming, windmills, energy saving lighting, etc}.  I quit in 2003 due to  gradual loss of vision (macular degeneration).  Joe retired in 1993 after 35 years of flying.

Last decade we battled against our bodies: cancer, heart operation, laminectopy and so on.  Now we are still some sort of nomads spending the year between Istanbul, Beirut and Bodrum (five months) at the southwestern tip of Turkey and Europe. As we roam a lot, the best way to locate us when in Turkey Is via my mobile: 00 90 532 231 9798.

 Unable to be at the helm, we, somehow, achieved to keep the sails up and tried to make the best of the harbors to which we drifted.  One of the steadiest anchors I had in my mind was Swarthmore 59.   There were a lot of funny episodes in Swarthmore, mainly centering around the Calhoun kitchen and front yard,  often with Jim at the center stage.  And I was also involved in Ada’s story of crashing on Falcones. I still   remember him in his striped pyjamas – totally bewildered.). However, more than those amusing moments Swarthmore marked me for life for what I learned there and added new dimensions to my mind.  It was a year of  challenge.  I left Swarthmore having learnt  that friendships, made at that age, are well rooted and defy limitations of  culture, religion, geographical distance, nationality , language and even years.  I continued the rest of my  life with this conviction  and  never doubted  its validity.  I thank all of you for making that year so special.  I particularly thank those who did not give me up despite my silence: Helen and Calhoun clan, Margaret, Smitty, Jim, Paddy and Charlie, Sid (ty fr yr e-mail that I left unanswered) and of course Meg…

 I miss her…..

We do not have children – by intent.  Could not face the challenge of bringing up one in a bathtub in a bathroom (the safest place in a traditional   flat when shelled and where many Lebanese children spent a few years  of their lives)  However, my brother, whom some of you met briefly in 59 has since studied, worked and settled in San Francisco,  and  became a US citizen, is married to a great Swiss lady, has two youngsters.  I ,thus, have an American nephew (Alan) and niece (Andrea) both of whom are very dear to us.  Joe. on his side, has two nephews and seven nieces and their children already add up to more than ten!  We share a lot with them.   

In late seventies I owned a rare breed of a car that I loved.  A car bomb blasted  in front of the house, caused a great deal of collateral damage (as it is called nowadays).  Among the material devastation, besides the  flat) was my much-loved car:  Other than the engine, everything  was  gone, but the engine was still  working.  Now I feel exactly as my car must have felt!

Recently   I have difficulty in reading and writing due to loss of  vision.   Wait till I master speech-to-text and vice versa And then you may  miss my  five decades of silence.