As a young girl, we used to spend a few days in Afyon in the summer. Sometimes our great uncle would lodge us, who would spend the nights in an old car in the garden with his rifle to protect his crops from the wild boars. Going to the toilet at night was always a little adventure. Their little house didn't have a toilet, so we had to get dressed and go to the barn next door in the dark, where the cows always felt a bit disturbed by our nocturnal activity. Our great-aunt went with her daughter as a day laborer to harvest sour cherries or poppies and apples, depending on the season. I was allowed to go once. To me that was the greatest thing, but my great-aunt was busy watching over me most of the time because I was again not heard and was climbing up ladders loosely leaning against trees. At noon, all the women took a break together and shared what they had brought with them on large blankets, laughed a lot and teased each other. It was like a party. In the evening there was always Bükme with lentils. My great-aunt prepared the dough on large trays, and my cousin and I were allowed to carry them to the district oven, where a big fire was burning and a woman, for a small fee, pushed in what was brought to her. There was a smaller fire later on my great-uncle's front door, with potatoes waiting to be cooked while relatives who had heard we were visiting came and went. Then we went to bed, under heavy, stiff woolen blankets, and we were sure to visit the stable again.
These women had big hearts that willingly shared what little they had. Owning a bracelet was particularly valuable. The engraved brass bracelets in our collection come from these same women, their mothers and grandmothers. They are antique and genuinely unique. Jewelry with history. The fact that they once adorned the wrists of these women, were a part of their lives, makes them particularly precious to us.