Our family had endured many hardships together to let me follow my passion, and now Apa couldn't understand why I was willing to lose everything just when things were finally looking up. But slowly he cooled down and began to see the honour in Onler's intentions, and also that he did not take advantage of my vulnerability. Knowing my temperament, Apa knew I was unlikely to back down.
When I had calmed down somewhat, I had a heart-to-heart chat with him. ‘You cannot help me. Don't you know how difficult it is to get things done without help?'
Apa relented and sent a messenger to Onler's family to come and boil tea at our house.
Putting the previous episode behind them, Onler's family came and boiled tea again in February 2004. This time, my parents drank gladly. The second time that tea was boiled, his parents came with prominent elders of the family. The most important is the third tea-boiling ceremony when there was a big gathering of relatives and friends from both families. Onler's family brought sweets and delicacies to the event. This was a public declaration of our engagement. After the ceremony, held in November 2004, the elders fixed a date for our marriage. With that, I was officially betrothed to Onler.
And after a long struggle ‘The wedding date was set for 12 March 2005'.
