Celal Çelik

From Claire Ozel Wiki

Who is Celal Çelik?

I was born in Eregli, Konya, on 5 August 1973. I'm the first born child of my family. I also have a brother and a sister.

My mother, Nuriye Çelik.. She's never seen her mother. My grandmother died a month after she gave birth to my mother. My mother was brought up by her brother and she left their house when she got married. My mother's father had died while my mother was at elementary school. So, my dear mother had to grow up without her parents.

My father, İsa Çelik.. İsa was the name of my father's grandfather. He was a veteran at Çanakkale War. He'd lost one of his eyes and half of his tongue during the war. He died when my father was very young. My grandfather's name is Faik. İsa (my father) is son of Faik, and Faik is son of İsa.

My father started working incessantly when he was very young. Once, his family had a financial crisis, my father gave all his earnings to his family because he was the only one who had an income. My father is an example of integrity. He even gave his payroll to his family. My father used to drill wells for the farmers in lots of villages, I believe all farmers had prayed for him for giving them water. He was away from his home, his warm bed for twenty seven years. He stayed in trailers and worked in mud just for us. He even managed to send me to a private school. I couldn't attend the private high school due to financial difficulties. (I took the exam and attended the electronics department of the trade school.) I believe my father is one of God's loved souls because he's so honest and benevolent. We didn't have our own house until 1998. Before then, we always paid rent. After my illness got worse, we could buy the groundfloor apartment we lived in by God's blessing. My father is a model of modesty for me. He never left being humble, no matter how inferior the person he was with at the moment. I believe that God gives his children the best destiny because of his goodness. My brother is a part of our glorious army, my sister has a holy job, she's a teacher.. As for me? Let me say that attending a private school and learning English has served me well.

My uncle Celal (one of the sons of my grandfather, Faik) had died in an accident in 1970, when he was only fifteen. Therefore I was named after him. My grandmother had cried day and night after his death. She could endure the pain of her loss for eleven years. She died in 1981, when I was eight. She loved me dearly. I remember her singing the same song over and over. She couldn't help herself crying while singing. I couldn't understand why she cried then. "I'm wandering in Gesi vineyard / I lost my kohled (?) Celal / I'm looking for him..."

My grandfather Faik remarried after my grandmother's death. My aunt Meryem was born in 1984. My grandfather was a bighearted person and he was a fan of Adnan Menderes. He named his younger son after him. He died on the eve of Ramadan, in 1991. My father told me that there had never been a more crowded funeral in Eregli. All the people of Eregli loved my grandfather. My father told me that he didn't even know most of the people who gave their condolences. One of the people who attended the funeral was the former Minister of Internal Affairs. "I had a job thanks to him, God have mercy on him.. My kids can still go to school thanks to him, God have mercy on him.. My daughter was assigned thanks to him, God have mercy on him.. My husband could have surgery thanks to him, God have mercy on him.. My child found a job thanks to him.. We had a wedding thanks to him.. etc.." told a lot of people at the funeral. My grandfather inherited two farms from my great grandfather, İsa. He spent everything with his pure heart, for the good of others. God have mercy on him. Let him rest in peace, in heaven. The last thing I will tell about my grandfather is that he had seen all his children (two daughters and four sons) got married and had jobs. He told me when I was 15 and he was in his dying bed to take care of Meryem (his daughter with his seconf wife).

As for me...

I attended Sümer Elementary School in Eregli for three years. We moved to Etimesgut, Ankara, due to my father's work. I attended private Yükseliş Middle School (4 years, including prep year). (1988) I graduated from Aktaş Trade High School. (1991) I then attended to Industrial Electronics department of Trade Academy of Selçuk University. (1993)

We lived in a shanty for seven years in Etimesgut, Ankara. The only bathroom was in the bedroom. The kitchen and sofa was at the entrance of the house. There was only the living room and we, three children of the family were sleeping there. The toilet was outside the house. We lived there for seven years. We were living in the shanty when I went to Yükseliş Kolej. My classmates were all children of rich and classy people. I'm ashamed now to accept the fact that in those days, I felt embarrassed by our house, my father being a villager, my mother wearing headscarf... I was a naive boy. I thought the world would never end. As if the old would stay old and the children would stay young for eternity. This false world is left for noone.

One day at the school, my art teacher told us to draw our houses' layout. I drew a friend's house. I understood much later that good morals make one worthy, not the house, being villager or having a headscarf.

We were so hapy in the years we lived in the shanty. My mother would sit, chat and drink tea with neighbours in the garden in the afternoons. My brother played football with his friends. I mostly stayed at home or rode my bicycle. The traffic was not dense. My sister was very young then. In summer evenings, we used to go to the tea house to watch video films with neighbours and bring our popcorns and sunflower seeds with us. There were no VCD's in the 1980s. My father was the chief driller in Sugar Factory drilling team. They used to drill water wells in various cities of Turkey during eleven months of the year. He could come home for just a few days a month. Now we live in an apartment. We don't have a garden; we don't have apricot or plum trees. The sincere neighbours of our shanty days are so hard to find nowadays. There are no shanties in Etimesgut. There are tall buildings every where.. apartment blocks.. May God save us all.

My illness showed itself while I was a senior student at college. I started swaying while walking. After that came the spasms and speaking difficulties.

In fact, I was aware of these problems but I thought they would end some day and told noone about them. I fell in love with a girl when I was 15. That summer, we went to the house in the village for vacation. She was a relative but not very close. She also came to the village from İskenderun for holiday. I was dreaming about walking on a straight line and carryying a cup of tea without spilling any. Don't laugh ? My dream wasn't a car or something like that. My only dream was being with the girl I loved, holding her feeling confident of my power and feeling her adoring eyes on me while in public...

I felt the unbalance since I was a kid. I would take several straight steps, then would sway a little. I could never walk while my eyes were closed. I could maintain my balance while running fast, but would get tired very soon. I thought everyone was like me. But then I reaized that everyone could walk on a straight line without swaying. I never rebelled, I dreamt every night. I kept my hopes up.

We used to go to the village coffeehouse with my cousins in summer evenings. Since there were no street lights at the village, the roads would be pitch dark. I would sway more while walking. My cousins would ask me, "Are you drunk? Why are you walking this way?" I would ignore their questions, start singing loudly and hold one of them's arm for support.

The girl I loved and I used to write letters to each other while I was in college. Writing a letter and waiting for a response is so nice. One day I received a letter. She told me that she wanted to break up with me in order to study without me confusing her and that she would never forget me. She didn't answer any of my calls for days. I was devastated. I started smoking, sleepless nights followed. I thought the reason she wanted to break up with me was the unbalance of my walking. Once we went to İskenderun from Konya and walked hand in hand at the coast. I believed it was the most beautiful city then. Just because she lived there. I kept missing her, even if she was sitting right in front of me while we were in a tea house at the coast, drinking tea at a table. I now understand that the love in me was divine. The love for a person was just a rehearsal for me. I haven't seen that girl for 15 years. She's become a teacher. She's married and has a son. I wish her happiness.

After that distressful period, my illness got worse. I could only walk by someone's or the wall's support and I was walking like a drunk. I was heavily depressed. My exams at school, finding a job, military service, marriage, heartbreaks and all that stress led to my illness.

I checked into the hospital when I was 19. After a series of tests, they told me the name of my illness: "Spinocerebellar Degeneration" I stayed at SSK Dışkapı Hospital for a month. I could take care of myself, therefore my father didn't stay with me at night. One day, the doctor came to me and said, "You can never get better. Your illness will only get worse. These are your best days, you may be permanently bedridden..." I was so young. I pulled the blanket over my head and cried all night. My father came and lifted the blanket in the morning and saw my red eyes. "The patient has a right to know," the doctor told my father. My tears weren't a rebellion to God, I was just so young and feeling sorry for myself. I thought I would be sick forever.

I checked out of the hospital and was called for military service. My biggest dream was to serve my country as a commando. I was examined at the military hospital and the doctors decided that my condition wasn't good enough for military service. I was getting up early at the military hospital. I felt like I somehow did my service by eating soldier's meal every evening.

SSK Hospital gave my father a report which was pointing out that I was his responsibility from then on. My father didn't accept this and we applied to the Employment Office. They sent us to the hospital in order to get a disablement report. The hospital gave a report which stated that I was 40% disabled and could work in light duty jobs. They didn't ask me my profession. I registered myself to Employment Office and stated I would only work in government facilities.

We were passing by the Employment Office while walking with my father a couple weeks later. My father suggested to add the private companies in the possible employers. We went inside and told them we would like to add the private companies also. The clerk asked me if I had a profession or not. "I'm an electrician," I told him. "Okay," he said. "There's a company named Karel. We've already sent them 5-6 disabled workers. They weren't satisfied, so they sent them all back. Would you try?"

The address was in Çankaya. But we lived in Sincan. We moved to an apartment in Sincan in 1989 because the children of the family were growing up rapidly. Çankaya was 40 kilometres away. We went to Karel... The officer liked me and told me, "This is the head office. The factory and Research & Development department are in Sincan. Go to the factory in Sincan tomorrow and talk to them." I felt lots of different things when I went to the factory. First, I took a test on electronics, then we talked about my illness. I told I could speak English well at the end of the meeting. On this remark, they wanted me to talk to the boss. He asked me to read a page from a technical book and translate it. I did, and since they liked my performance, they asked me to come again the next morning. An engineer left work at the R&D Department and they thought I could fill his place. I started working at the R&D Department. God bless them. I was graduated from college but it took two more years for me to learn the job and get experienced.

I understood later that God loved me, this was my destiny. I didn't learn English for no reason. God knows everything and everything God does has a reason. I was working as an engineer and my house was only 6 kilometres away from my work. Thank God.

I started working at Karel in 1994. In the first years, I could walk myself and could go to work even if I walked like a drunk. My father was continuing his drill job in various cities of Turkey. He could come home only for a few days each month. Work life was very stressful. I had noone to share. Work related stress, psychological depressions caused by illness and loneliness made my condition worse and I started to use wheelchair in 1998. The first years were so hard. I don't know about my parents, maybe they talked and shared their thoughts at nights. I was so depressed, I saw noone around me. My sister was a high school student by then and she was preparing for college exams. She loved me a lot and felt really sorry for me. "I would have no problem with failing the test if only my brother got better," she told mom one day. God must be so content with her. She's a teacher for four years now.

My illness got worse each day. My father bought a second-hand car. He would take me to work and help me sit behind my desk every day and after that, he would go to his work in Etimesgut Sugar Factory. In the evenings he would come and take me back home. My father's chief was an indulgent man, he knew my situation and didn't have a problem. But my father wasn't feeling well because he couldn't go out of the city and do his job properly because of me. He could continue for three more years and then retired. The same year, my brother got married in summer. After a year, my beloved niece İrem was born.

Deep in my heart, I always felt God was with me all the way. I couldn't come out of depression and start asking questions about life and the worldly beings. We were fasting through the month Ramadan but did it as a cultural habit. I even attended Friday prayers with some of my friends when I was in college. But thank God, I never rebelled for not being able to walk.

It was September, 2002. I got an e-mail during a stressful work morning. There were some questions in it, and told that the answers could be found in the Quran. "What is the purpose of life? Where do people go when they die? Who goes to heaven or hell, how? The worthlessness of worldly life, how can one start over life with a simple repentance and so on..." There was a week till Ramadan. I decided to repent and start reading Quran. I already quit smoking in August, 2002. I fasted only for God's consent in Ramadan. Thank God, God showed me the way of Islam. I finished reading Quran in 6-7 months. Turkish translation of Quran, yes. Every evening after I got home, I would read several verses and start thinking about them and applying them to my life. For example, after I read the verse about faithful men protecting their eyes from forbidden, I decided to avert my eyes from any nakedness I see on tv or outside home and change the channel. I liked watching movies and most of them had obscene scenes in them. When I was watching them with my family, I started to close my eyes during those scenes and I still could understand the film.

May God bless my parents and grant them both long lives. They tried very hard in order to make me feel less disabled. If someone asks me who I think are closest to heaven, I will say their names without missing a beat. Taking me to the toilet, helping me put my clothes on, helping me have a bath, taking me to work and back home every day are only a few of the things my father is doing for me. I didn't choose them while coming to this world but I feel thankful that I have them and pray for my family. I know they're worried about me and they wonder what will happen to me after they're gone. We'll see.. God is great.

I decided to perform the namaz five times a day in 2005. I had a problem with purification with water before prayers. My father couldn't take me to the bathroom every day because of my weight. Our neighbour, who is a theology teacher taught me how to purificate without water. I perform namaz on my wheelchair or at the place I sit. I started to perform more excitedly, even in tears in time. As I wrote before, this world was mortal and we were sent on it in order to know and love God and for being a loving servant to God. God is so merciful that God sent a Prophet and Quran to guide us. I believe with all my heart that God made me ill because God loved me and God gave me a chance to find my path with my own will. And I'm sure God will heal me some day. God will test me, tested my patience with illness, and after I'm healed, my will will be put to test. Isn't the world a place for tests? Why not?

I've told the milestones of my 34 years. I skipped a lot of details and events. I owe to lots of my friends and my family. May God bless you and grant you a thousand fold of your good deeds and helps to me. Please give your blessings to me.