Merve Aydoğan
18 October 2017•Update: 19 October 2017
By Gokhan Gucukluoglu
SINOP, Turkey
A carpenter’s attempt to honor his father’s dying wish to return to his home village has seen him carve wooden sculptures of his parents.
Ali Ulu, 67, has placed the life-sized figures in the garden of his house in his family village near the Black Sea and dressed them in his parents’ clothes.
“Before my father passed away, he wanted to return to our village,” Ulu, an only child, told Anadolu Agency.
“However, I couldn't bring him here because we were busy with work and our house here was not very convenient at the time.”
When Ulu's father Cemil Ahmet died in 1984, four years after his wife Hatice, the family lived in Istanbul.
After a career as a carpenter in Istanbul, Ulu decided to erect lifelike monuments to his mother and father in Kese, a forest village near the town of Boyabat in Sinop province.
“Since I know my parents will not come back, I become a bit happy when I see their sculptures,” he said. “I wipe my father's shoes and clean my mother's clothes when I pass by them.”
Ulu has placed signs behind wood statues reading “My Dear Father” and “My Dear Mother”.
His father’s mustachioed figure is clad in a trilby hat and dark suit while that of Ulu’s mother wears a headdress and long dress.
His wife Safiye said her husband had always treated his parents with love and respect.
“Similarly to my husband, I loved his mother and father very much,” she said.
“Everytime I see their sculptures I get emotional as we shared life together. My husband was very attached to them. He tries to overcome his longing for them through this way.”
