The albatross journey

65 - The greatest joy

Mihriban

I can't believe it's really happening, Aziz has just asked Nihat for my hand in marriage and for me it's the most unexpected and sweetest gesture he could make.

At my age, I had long since given up the traditions and daydreams that young people are used to, imagining their beloved asking for their hand in marriage and then all the preparations for the wedding they have always wanted.
Now I find myself here, with a ring tied with a red thread to the one on Aziz's finger, and I feel my heart bursting with a joy I have never experienced before.
I can't be happier than this, that thread somehow represents the bond that has never been severed between us, despite his marriage to Huma, despite the many years of distance, we know that we have always belonged to each other in the depths of our hearts.

We watch Nihat cut the ribbon that joins the rings of Can and Sanem and I can only be happy for them, they were wiser than us.
They knew how to find the courage to look for each other and choose again.
For me and Aziz things were very different, Huma managed with her machinations to separate us for so long, we were young and we did not know how to fight to defend what we had, we did not trust each other fully and we condemned ourselves to decades of lack and emptiness.
We spoke at length during these days, we explained ourselves and understood how our own insecurities had given way to that horrible woman to divide us.

It still seems incredible to me that we are here now, like two new boyfriends, looking into each other's eyes who know how to tell each other everything we both feel in our hearts without the need for words, at our age even those are superfluous.

- Aziz, you are crazy, what have you invented this evening? -

- Mihriban, my love, my only one.
I know you might think that we are too old for such things, but I want to live with you each of the experiences that were denied to us.
I wanted you to experience the traditional request for the hand of the bride that you could not have because of me, because of my stupid pride that prevented me from coming to look for you right away, even to the ends of the earth if necessary.
I should have done it immediately, as soon as I landed from America, but my sense of responsibility for a non-existent child and a lying woman prevented me from doing so.
After divorcing Huma I realised that I should never have married her because my heart had only ever been yours.
I looked for you so much, I hired the best private investigators, but nobody found any trace of you.
You seemed to have disappeared from the face of the earth, but never from my heart.
Now that I have found you again I want to make you happy, I want to make you mine before God and man, I want you to be my wife and I want to be your husband, just as it should have been decades ago, our whole life -

We hug each other tightly, sighing with joy, as if with the other finally by our side, we had found the ability to breathe that we had lacked during the long years of distance and absence.

Still hugging each other, we turn to look at Can and Sanem, seeing in them the same emotion we are experiencing at this moment, the joy of a love reborn and rediscovered despite everything and everyone.

Mevkibe

I look around, the living room of my house is full of love this evening and I can't help but be moved.
We accepted willingly when Aziz explained what he wanted to do, we are happy for him and for his Mihriban, a very sweet woman who has found her great lost love after so many years, a romantic and tragic story that has finally had the happy ending it deserved.

I approach my Nihat and take his hand.
He turns to look at me with that good, spontaneous and sincere smile, which makes me love him now as much as on the first day.
We have overcome many difficulties together, a life that was certainly not one of comfort and wealth, but one that was very, very happy and full of a love that never failed.
It has always been enough for us to be together, hand in hand, in our home and with our daughters to be complete and fulfilled.
To see them now so radiant, next to the men they love, is the most beautiful gift.
I recognise in their eyes the same feeling I have always had for my Nihat and I can only be happy, nothing else matters but love in this life.

Can approaches me, takes my hand and brings it to his lips and then to his forehead in the ritual gesture of respect for the elders of the family, I smile touched.

-Oğul, son, welcome to the family, I have always believed in you and the feeling I knew you had for my little girl, even when you yourself were not fully aware of it-.

He smiles as moved as I imagine.
- Mevkibe, I will never be able to thank you enough for being such a precious mother figure to me, you knew how to give me wise advice that I may not have grasped straight away, but which eventually led me to understand what really matters.
Once you have found the right partner, you cannot let her go, because she is the only one who can be with you while you travel the many paths of life.
It took me some time, but in the end I understood that only Sanem can be that companion, no one else ever.
I understood this thanks to you, your words and the beautiful relationship I saw between you and Nihat.
I have come to want for Sanem and me exactly that feeling, that love and joy that is clearly perceived in your home. Thank you very much Mevkibe-

- Come here son, you can call me anne, mama.
You're our son now, you and Emre are the sons we didn't have, we only ask you to make our girls happy, that's all Nihat and I want -

I see him nodding with emotion as he embraces me in a hug that says so much about him and how much he has missed a mother figure.
I have always sensed this deep fragility of his, this need that has only made him even dearer to me. I knew that he and Sanem would eventually find their way back to each other, the feeling that binds them is so unique that it could not be otherwise. They belong together, I felt it as a certainty from the first moment I saw them together.

It is Nihat who calls us all to order.

- Aydin and Divit, the time has come to go.
A big party awaits us tonight, the Kına gecesi, the night of henna, of our Layla.
Apparently we will soon have more and I, as the father of the brides-to-be, can only be happy about that.
Welcome to the Aydin household to all the Divits, it is an honour to have you now and forever in our daughters' lives.