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48 MAGICAL HOURS IN ISTANBUL
by Melany Bendix
I’m staring at hundreds of cigarette butts,
straight-pinned to a board as diligently as an
entomologist would pin a prized butterfly
collection. Four thousand two hundred and
thirteen cigarette butts to be exact, each
smudged with lipstick and meticulously
catalogued according to the date smoked and
the particular occasion it marked. The varying
lipstick shades – starting with a flaming red
in the 1970s and gradually maturing to a coral
pink in the mid-80s, bar a flash of experimental
orange in-between – mark the aging of the
woman who smoked them all. Her name was
Füsun, the cousin and object of affection of
Kemal, a wealthy Istanbulian businessman
whose home I am in. Kemal died in 2007 in this
house, surrounded by his collection of more
than a thousand objects related to Füsun and
his obsession with her – hair clips, broaches, a
single glove. The house was then turned into a
museum – The Museum of Innocence – named
after the novel of the same title, which tells the
tale of Kemal and Füsun’s sanguine yet ultimately
tragic love story.
32 // MAKE MEMORIES FOR LIFE