Fadime Guler Teacher, Ministry of National Education
  • Death Date 10/12/2019
  • Place of Death Adiyaman
  • Cause of Death Lung Cancer
  • Date of Burial 11.12.2019, Adiyaman

Biography

The “Farewell” letter that she wrote three days before her death:

This is a “Farewell” letter!

Goodbye favourable people,
Goodbye Adiyaman, Tokat, Malatya, Diyarbakir,
Goodbye fish of the `Pool of Abraham` (Pool of Abraham or Balikligol is a pool in the southwest of the city centre of Sanliurfa, Turkey, known in Jewish and Islamic legends as the place where Nimrud threw the Prophet Abraham into a fire.)
Goodbye, my lovely students,
Goodbye Alime, Eve, Asuman, Yeliz, Sibel, Filiz, Hatice and other friends,
Goodbye sisters, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, co-sisters-in-law,
Goodbye, my father Musa,
Goodbye Adiyaman’s hot clawed bread, roasted peppers, steak tartar a la turca seller, ice-cream seller, and the Sheep’s Head and Foot Soup Shop that my husband and I fled from everyone in the middle of the night to have the lovely soup.
Goodbye to the Kizilirmak River, where we took a walk,
Goodbye Tokat-style Kebab,
Goodbye heart and chicken menus at Symbol restaurant,
Goodbye dreams, and I experienced, and that I could not I experience, and that not given a chance to experience,
Goodbye, daughter-in-law whom I dreamed of shopping arm in arm with.. daughter-in-law whom I didn’t see, and I’ll never see.
Goodbye, my diploma that I got by working for years,
Goodbye tyrants!
Goodbye devils without a tongue! (In Islamic culture, this jargon is uttered for those who see the persecution, discrimination or injustice and remain silent)
Goodbye, thieves of labour! (Means, Guler became a teacher and had a job, and a morning she woke up and was notified that her diploma was revoked, and she was purged from her beloved profession, so the regime “stole” her “labour/effort”)
Goodbye long and painful chemotherapy hours
Goodbye serums, needles, masks, blood tests.
Goodbye cold radiotherapy corridors,
Goodbye operating theatres,
Goodbye MRIs, PETs, Tomographs, Echos,
Goodbye doctors, nurses and intensive care units,
Goodbye sky, sea, mountains, plains,
Goodbye, the house with the garden I always dreamed of and the vegetables and fruits I dreamed of planting.
Goodbye, the flowers, waiting for me at the window of my kitchen balcony, that never knew I wouldn’t come back,
Goodbye Blue, Green, Orange, Red,
Goodbye Emel Sayin, Erol Evgin, Sezen Aksu, Volkan Konak,
Goodbye, my unfinished Hatim (Hatim: reading the whole of the Quran),
Goodbye my Jawshan Kabeer, Ashab-i Bedir (list), Companions of Uhud (list), my Celceluti prayer, (Jawshan Kabeer is a long Islamic prayer that contains 1001 names and attributes of Allah. Ashab-i Bedir and Companions of Uhud are the lists of Prophet Mohammed’s companions who took part in Bedr and Uhud battles.)
Goodbye Erkam, my son, I’m sorry I can’t attend your degree ceremony for your diploma in law,
Goodbye, my beautiful girl with beady eyes, my Ayse. I can watch from here that you are a doctor now.
Goodbye, my not-so-handsome husband. I think I’ve tired you so much, excuse me!

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