A week after my 26th birthday, I lost my great uncle. It wasn’t from Covid-19 and it wasn’t unexpected, but it hit me like nothing else.
I am what people call multi-cultural. I’m quarter Turkish, quarter English and half Scottish. But I grew up in Istanbul, living and studying there until the age of 16.
Nearly every year we’d visit my family in Scotland, including my uncle Mac. Back then, you didn’t meet your loved ones after you’d picked up your luggage… You’d meet them the minute you got off the plane and walked down the narrow corridor out of the gate.That’s where he’d be, the first face I would see with the most amazing smile and a bag full of sweets only found in the UK.