Clare's Section by Equinox Publishing

Clareâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Section 57

Clare Marie

was born on March 19, 1968 in Toledo. My parents named me after St. Clare, who was a good buddy of St. Francis the animal lover (which might have something to do with being a vegetarian). My three younger brothers, Paul, Mark and John we were born pretty soon after me. I missed having a sister but was grateful for Gina, my foster sister. After graduating from high school in Toledo I wanted out of that town. Having older cousins who went away to school definitely had an influence on that decision. After a stint at Loyola in Chicago I ended up Ohio University in Athens, where I felt I was in academic and activist heaven. In 1988 at OU I met Nevzat. A professor introduced us and told me I should marry him. Ha! He was from Turkey, half-Kurdish and I had a hard time remembering his name. However, he understood me better than the other boys, especially when I wanted to go to Nicaragua in 1989. After the trip he came to all my slide presentations and I knew it was love. He moved on to grad school at Arizona State, I returned to Central America for research then joined him in Phoenix. We were married in 1992 in Toledo at a beautiful gathering of family and friends who all danced to a steel drum band. In Phoenix I landed a dream job with the Valley Religious Task Force on Central America. The pay was low but the people were the best and I learned tons. Nevi finished his PhD and was offered a job at the University of Hawai’i in 1995 – it was hard moving so much farther away from family but jobs for academics were scarce.

Nevi and I lived in Hawai’i for 17 years. I went to law school there and practiced immigration law while he worked up to a full-time tenured faculty in Political Science. I was the state coordinator for Amnesty International and life was quite full. We had talked about having children but were hesitant – the life-style changes contemplated for life with kid(s) were pretty scary. However, we took a leap of faith and Alissandro Richard (Ali) was born on October 14, 2001. Almost two years later came Derya Dilan on October 2, 2003. I left my full-time work to care for them when they were young. Later I transitioned back into immigration law and had a busy practice complete with 100+ human trafficking victims. In the summer of 2011 Nevi was offered a job in Melbourne. Completely against the wishes of Ali and Derya, we decided to give it a go. We moved to Melbourne in January 2012 and as I write this now in May 2013 we are preparing for a move back to Honolulu in July. It’s been a very good run for us in Melbourne, but the job was not a good fit for Nevi and we are going back to what we know. Melbourne will always feel like a home to me, as does Honolulu and Toledo. I feel incredibly fortunate to have been born into my family, not just my family but the extended one as well. I have wonderful and love-filled memories of grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins. I hope to instill the special value of family in Ali and Derya, values demonstrated in the way Louise and Patrick’s children, my mom, aunts and uncles, care so beautifully for each other.

Nevzat

was born in 1963 in Sivas, a central Anatolian town in Turkey. I was the fourth of five kids my mother Neriman and my father Cafer would have by 1965. I spent the first seven years of my life in Sivas. I have many fond memories of my early childhood there. A city of dry sun during the summer and heavy snow during winter, Sivas was a marvellous place to grow up for a child of my age interested in soccer, sledding and care free wondering about. Shortly after I started the first grade, we moved to a Black Sea town called Samsun, where my father had been transferred. I loved living in Samsun, Our house was stone throw away form the sea and my school. I spent countless hours with friends by the sea or in the sea playing, and occasionally, catching fish, clams, and sea urchins. We lived in Samsun for four years, returning to Sivas when I was in fifth grade. From then until I moved to Ankara for college, I lived in Sivas. Sivas is also where I started to acquire a consciousness of my ethnic and religious background, a Kurd/Turk and an Alevi. That realization has deepened over the years, constantly shaping my life. I studied international relations for my bachelors at a university in Ankara. For the first year my brother and I lived together, with a friend making up the population of our fairly impoverished yet happy student house. The four years I spent in Ankara were tremendously influential in my life. I went to conferences, concerts, poetry readings, met some of Turkey’s

foremost writers and activists and otherwise just enjoyed the exhilarating life of a capital city. My older brother was a constant companion and guide. We got along splendidly. In my second year, my parents moved to Ankara. I was happy to have them there. My mother’s everyday loving embrace, not to mention her cooking, was priceless. My father carefully tending the chicken coop everyday lingers in my mind’s eye. Now, my mom and dad both passed away in 2013 within four months of each other, between January and May. I pay tribute to them for sustaining me in this world. My loving wife Clare took Ali and Derya to Turkey for them to meet and see my mom for the first and last time. They took me along in spirit and as result gave me a lifelong gift. After completing my studies in Ankara, the good fortune brought me to Cleveland, Ohio. Actually, I know the names of my good fortune, my sister-in-law Maryann and my brother whose loving material and emotional support made it possible for me to come to Ohio, to go to a language school, and ultimately, to end up at Ohio University where I would meet the love of my life, Clare. A force of nature and infinite goodness, Clare came into my life suddenly, swiftly and sweetly in 1989. And she has completed me. Clare has told the story of the rest of our lives together in her account in evocative ways already. So I encourage you to read her part about our lives together, including about what Clare refers to as Thing One (Ali) and Thing Two (Derya).

Alissandro Richard

Derya Dilan

was born in Honolulu, Hawai’i on October 2, 2003. I lived in Honolulu until I was 8, then we moved to Melbourne, Australia. I felt bad about moving because I was going to miss everyone and I loved Hawai’i. In Hawai’i I loved my friends, going to the beaches, climbing trees, and the community we lived in at the faculty housing apartments. At faculty housing we would play all day outside most and inside sometimes. Leaving all of that behind was hard for me. In January 2012 we came to Melbourne. It was cold, wet, and I felt horrible about my new school because I did not know anyone. After I started school I made a friend called Jade. She is special to me because she was the first friend I made and she made me feel better. That made things easier for me. In Australia the air is much dryer than Honolulu and the accents are different. I’ve enjoyed going to many different places, going to Queenscliff with Jade and Colac with Sophie and Castlemaine with Saskia. I feel better about my school now and I like my teachers. In my life I’ve been to many places and I’m very lucky because I’ve been able to see and experience all these places. I’ve been to Turkey, New Zealand, Tasmania, Sydney, London, Amsterdam, Germany, California, Ohio, Malaysia, Boston, and the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. I’d like to go to Fiji because it sounds so nice. I feel great about going back to Hawai’i but I will miss a lot of people. A couple more things about me: I love running, and I won a medal and 6 ribbons. I love dogs and other animals and I am a vegetarian. I love to be with my friends and my family.