The recollections of Lillian Epik (Zacharie)

I was born in Izmir on August 25, 1935. I had a brother Jean ‘Jeanot Zacharie’ who passed away (July 1939 – May 1999). My parents were Charles Zacharie (June 30 1900 – June 25 1981) and Evelyn Ghigo (Sept 21 1912 – May 18 1982). My maternal grandfather Georges Ghigo was a Maltese born in Izmir and married first Marie d’Andria who passed away due to an infection, after giving birth to a girl (Marie). Later he married a cousin of his first wife, an Italian girl from Izmir, Malvine Macripodari. They had 3 daughters together: Evelyn, Ivy and Gladys. My mother Evelyn was a very disciplined, hard-working woman who accepted her husband’s family as her own and was able to establish a very nice home atmosphere. There was respect and love between my mother and her in-laws, in fact my paternal grandmother and my mother were like mother and daughter. So my brother and I were raised in a family with a lot of understanding and love. We had a wonderful communication with each other in spite of the generation gap.

George Ghigot’s birthday party when he loved to assemble his 4 daughters and the grand-children, in 1941. I am standing with the big white bow in my hair. George Ghigot and Malvine Ghigot are seated centrally and my mother is standing second from the left, other daughers are Ivy (4th from the left), Gladys next and Marie (Lulu on the right).

My father worked for the Ottoman bank in Izmir for 40 years and after he retired worked in different temporary jobs. My mother was one of the first (of 2, Arlette Bon the other) Levantine ladies to have a job. My mother worked first at the Banca di Roma in Izmir before her marriage and later in the Ottoman Bank as a secretary, when my father was drafted. My father during 1941 served in the military as a reservist like many non-Moslems of Turkish nationality in their late 30s and 40s (war time contingency) at the time and was posted to the Bolu area for 10 months. My mother to support the family had to work during that posting and accepted the offer of the job at the Ottoman bank because of her earlier experiences, thus becoming the bread-winner for the family. My father and his family came to Izmir from Edirne in 1912 after spending a couple of years in Istanbul. I presume the Catholic community in Edirne moved out just before the Balkan War of 1912. Most of the families settled in Istanbul but I don’t know why, our family came down to Izmir. There is another family related to us from Edirne (Vernazza, also Italian origin) who also came to Izmir. The Levantine community in Edirne inter-married a lot so we are related for example to the Vernazza family in 2 ways.

My paternal grandfather Jean Zacharie (1868-1946) and the whole family were born in Edirne. Jean Zacharie married Amelie Bartel (1878-1966). They had 3 children, my dad Charles and Henri and Joseph. Amelie Bartel’s father, Karl Bartel had come to Edirne to work on the railroad as an engineer from Graz, Austria.

Carl Bartel with other railway managers in Karagac, seated on the right (?).

Standing from left is my grandfather Jean Zacharie and sitting next to him is his wife Amelie and his 3 children surrounding her (my father Charles is the oldest, on the far left). The other people in this photo are the Bartell family, c. 1905.

Jean Zacharie had 7 siblings (he was the third): Christine, Marie, Jean, Catherine, Pauline, Eugenie, Helene, Frederick, all born in Karağac, Edirne. My grandfather Jean, who I knew, worked for the Singer Sowing Machines Company and the Railways but he was quite a rebel, and joined a trade union movement in the Railways Company. For that he lost his job with the Railways, but carried on working for the Singer Company! He was a strong-willed man, although my grandmother was also a strong woman who knew how to tame him. My brother and I grew up in a household of 7 with 3 generations: including my grandparents, my grandfather’s sister Tante Eugenie (who never married) and our parents. So I heard a lot of stories of old Edirne from them. As one remembers the past, Edirne for them was paradise. My husband Gilbert and I went to Edirne in 1957 and all we could see was the foundations of my ancestral home, the foundations of the Catholic Church, the foundations of the German / Austrian school and of course the Catholic Cemetery covered in weeds but we could still find the tomb of the Zacharie family. My father attended the German Kindergarten and could understand in a very limited way German but his mother could speak and write German fluently as her father was Austrian. Later she corresponded in German with her sisters in Italy. My grandmother was quite educated for her generation and her French was also fluent. In the last years of her life she would read the letters from her sisters in German but reply in French, so her sisters were also multi-lingual. My grandmother had a lot of influence on me while I was growing up under the same roof.

Group picture of the Railway employees with a sign in French indicating this is a trade union gathering in which my grandfather was one of the chief instigators for which he lost his job, around turn of the century.

The European community / Levantines of Edirne lived in Karağac, a suburb of Edirne. Presumably the foreign consulates were all in Karagac and they all had a rich social life with balls and dinners. They lived in a tight-knit community, a mixture of consuls, merchants and engineers. My Austrian great-grand father died in a railway work accident, and although his widow claimed for a pension, she never got it. The family lived in a big house, with a maid. My grandmother was a fan of cooking since they entertained a lot and she was the one who managed the family. She used to tell me how they cured ham and were able keep it all through the winter due to the very cold climate in those days with the local river (Meric) freezing every winter. Quite a lot like the Levantine community in Izmir, the Edirne Levantine community could speak several languages, mostly French, Italian, Greek with a regional accent and probably a little German since there was a school but their Turkish was broken as they had limited need to communicate in that language. They would meet among themselves and would probably also mix languages but I realised that even the ladies of the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century were quite educated for that time. This is the oral tradition of the family passed down to me.

I was at the age of starting elementary school when my father was doing his military service in Bolu. Because of my birthday falling in August which was the limit for registration, I was refused to begin school like my friends at the age of 6. To console me my father promised to register me in person the following year when he would be back from his military service. So I started school aged 7, in 1942 in Karsiyaka, the Turkish School of Ankara Ilkokulu the building of which used to be the local Greek school (St Anne’s) with its chapel in the school yard still standing. We could see most of the paintings in oil on the walls and ceiling depicting probably religious scenes which were white-washed but we could still see through them. The school building was in Greek architectural style with marble steps and Greek style columns. Unfortunately the school and the chapel were pulled down much later, where my daughter also went for one year.

My father on the extreme right with aunt Eugenie behind him, next to the right his middle brother Henri, Amelie Zacharie their mother, standing his younger brother Joseph and father Jean Zacharie seated at the end, in the middle 1920s.

Many years later (1970s) when my father (holding glass on left) and his 2 brothers (Joseph, middle and Henri) met for the last time, in Kalabak near Izmir.

My parent’s wedding at St Helene church, 1932.

Since the Levantine community of that time was still significant in the neighbourhood there were other Levantine pupils in the school. I had Levantine friends but also 2 very close Muslim friends, with whom I lost contact with after elementary school. One friend, Helene Borg, who was one year ahead of me, and is still my best friend after all those years because later we attended the same secondary school. While in elementary school I was tutored in English by an old Levantine lady (the eccentric Madame de Vries, whose husband was Belgian) and insisted on teaching me the 3 forms of the irregular verbs, no doubt very boring to me at the time. Those lessons lasted hours and hours because she kept going to the kitchen to make coffee and finally I managed to convince my parents to find another teacher for me. Actually I had started learning English even before I went to school; there was an old English lady living across the street from us in Karsiyaka where I went every morning and did some gardening with her, aged around 5. The elderly lady was the aunt of Honorine Gout [her memoirs] and her husband, Mr Gout, would come to our house every evening during WW2 to listen to the BBC news on our radio because they didn’t own one. I still have a picture of my grandfather sitting on one side of the radio and Mr Gout on the other side. Both were harder hearing so they would cup their ears to hear better. My grandfather listened to the news in French (Second World War years) earlier and then they would argue in French, as both old men were stuck in their ways.

My early teacher Mrs Gout used to take me to the ‘Halk Evi’ (the fine house still standing across the ferry landing of Karsiyaka) where she taught adults English and I would sit there and listen and learn a bit. During 4th and 5th grade of my elementary school I was tutored by Mr Hornstein of German origin who also taught me English in a more academic way. When I finished elementary school, especially my father wanted me to go on with English, although I was given a choice of either going to the Dame de Sion School in Istanbul or the American School in Izmir. Though my parents were employees their priority was for both my brother and me to have a good education. I opted for the American school as I didn’t want to be away from home. When I had my first interview at the American School, my father said that I could speak English. So I answered all of the principal questions in English and they thought I could skip the preparatory year by taking a test in September. I passed the test but it was a great mistake as I then struggled in 6th grade when my class mates had already been one or two years in that school. I felt a stranger and suffered a lot and I was so unhappy. As a result, later, when both my daughters entered the same school I insisted they take the preparatory year. I attended that school for 7 years and I think I have learnt English quite well. In 1954 when I graduated there was no University in Izmir. The Ege University was established a year later, 1955. One reason was that my parents didn’t want me to go to University in Istanbul, neither was I so keen on going to University. So on my senior year at the American School, 6 girls from our class took a business course and learnt how to type and take short-hand and how to be a secretary in an office environment. While I was still in school in the final year the teachers arranged for me to give some private lessons to prep-students, which was my first teaching experience. Our principal Mrs Blake found jobs for the graduates of that year and I got a job at the Turyağ Company in Turan as the secretary of the General Manager, Mr John Fox, who was English as that company was greatly owned by a British Company at the time. I worked there for 3 years until I got married. Later I worked from home as an English teacher, as well as teaching short-hand and typing, did some typing work at home and also did some research work for the locally based American military chaplain for the 7 churches of the Apocalypse. To make a long story short, I worked quite hard for 50 years, but I always enjoyed it. Although I worked hard I was lucky enough to find a Levantine lady (Claire Maraspini) who looked after our daughters, did some cooking and allowed me to continue my career and also socialise with my friends once a week.

Me and my classmates rushing for the tramway after school. I am at the front row right hand and the girl right in front is Helen Borg.

The Levantine community in the 1950s was very large. We lived within our communities and didn’t mingle much with Turkish people although we respected their Bayrams and made a point to visit our neighbours on those days. But other than that we did not have much social interaction with the Turks. There was a gap between their way of living and ours although I had Turkish and Jewish friends from school who were very dear to me. In those days there were Levantine groups living in Alsancak, Buca, Bornova and Karsiyaka. Inter-marriages in those days were not even thought of. So we met with Levantines and foreigners.

Our community of Karsiyaka was quite numerous, in fact according to me there were the people living on the water-front, the larger group living around the church, like us, and another community living in Alaybey around the St Joseph Chapel. The chapel in Alaybey belonged to the French Charity Sisters School which later became the Alaybey Ilkokulu (primary school) and the sisters’ house which we rented for less than a year until we could move back to our neighbourhood. The St Helene Catholic Church in Karsiyaka is where my parents were married, me and my brother were baptised, had our first communion and in 1957 Gilbert and I were married there. I can’t skip without mentioning the illustrious priest Padre Francesco who left a mark in the church and in the community as the local ‘Don Camillo of Karsiyaka’. There are many funny stories related to him specially in his preachings like when my grandmother was about to die right after the new year. In his New Year’s speech he rubbed his hands stating that the old Madame Zacharie will open the New Year. For instance he would invite people to taste his wine but wipe the glasses with his dirty handkerchief before pouring his own home-made wine. On the other hand he was very generous and helped people who needed it. A social event in Karsiyaka was the gatherings on Sundays after church in several homes. My parents had an open house for coffee after church so did the Pariente’s for a younger group and the D’Issidoro’s for bezik and maybe bridge. Now we are reduced to a handful of people whom we know well and share their joys and sorrows.

We had a big group of friends and met regularly in homes where we had pot-lucks, danced and also started choosing our spouses through flirtation. Of course as a high-school student I looked forward to the weekend for the good time I awaited. We used to take walks, and in the summer organise excursions to the different beaches which were not populated then. We were quite a close group and our friendships lasted for decades.

Me on my wedding day outside my parent’s house in Karsiyaka. Behind Gilbert, on his left is his mother. My mother and my grandmother between us and on the other side are Gilbert’s brother and my father.

When we got married in 1957 we first lived in Alsancak for 3 years and then went back to Karsiyaka because we were attracted by the many friends we had there. We spent 7 beautiful years in Karsiyaka. Our daughters Karin was 6 months old when we moved and Milen was born there. We moved back to Alsancak when we decided to buy a flat as it would be much easier for me to work from home.

Karsiyaka was a paradise for me. As children we could swim from the jetties belonging to certain families such as the Penetti’s. There were also the 2 public baths, one for the women and the other for the men. As a child I remember picking up my dad after work from the boat-landing and walk up to the baths. My father would immediately jump into the water. I would sometimes go with him as I was 4 or 5 years old and was allowed to be in the men’s baths. There was a pool in the middle for non-swimmers. Others would swim further out.

Since the automobile was not widely available at the time, and the water in the bay was not polluted, the inhabitants of Karsiyaka would walk in groups to the sea-side and swim in the bay. You could see sail-boats racing in the bay. Dolphins also racing with the boats. Women holding black umbrellas to protect themselves and their children from the sun and then around 12.30 this mass of people would move back home because most employees would come from Izmir to have lunch at home, so lunch-breaks were quite long in those days. One other memory from those days was, my parents’ close friend Michel Pariente would hire a horse carriage for the season whose driver would be waiting for him to come out of the boat for lunch and Michel Pariente would invite my parents to go swimming from the Penetti’s jetty. In a rush my parents would change into their swimming suits and Michel Pariente who lived around the corner would pick them up for a dip. They would return home where lunch was ready for them, prepared by my grandmother and readied to go back to the bank by carriage and boat.

Another special event in Karsiyaka was moonlight parties on the jetties and a dip after a few drinks. We would also do this in Bayrakli. Our friend Aldo Braggiotti’s parents had a summer house in Bayrakli by the sea where we had a lot of unforgettable parties. Our group of friends included Gilbert Epik, Ivana Missic, Ricardo Valentini, the Barrabich brothers from Alsancak, Alfio & Vania Filinesi just to mention a few.

One evening at my parents for dinner, me sitting with our daughters flanking us.

Me and my brother Jeannot on his 50th birthday in Cappadocia, 1989.

Me with my dear husband Gilbert Epik from a few years back.

Note: Unfortunately Mrs Lilian Epik died on 25 September 2021 aged 86. May she rest in peace.

Submission date May 2018