The apartment above Kadir’s Meat Market belonged to the Arslan family for more than thirty years. Yusuf Arslan worked long hours as a butcher in the family shop downstairs while his wife Emine handled the register and prepared lunches for workers from nearby garages and repair stalls. Their youngest son Murat grew up helping carry deliveries through the market streets before school.
Most mornings in the neighborhood started with the sound of shutters opening before sunrise.
The Arslans were usually first.
Murat’s Seat Near the Window
Seven things still remained inside the apartment years later: Yusuf’s white butcher coat hanging beside the hallway door; Emine’s handwritten shopping lists folded inside kitchen drawers; Murat’s football magazines stacked near the radiator; a cracked kitchen cabinet handle repaired with tape; unpaid supplier invoices tucked beneath a fruit bowl; faded prayer calendars hanging near the fridge; and a chipped thermos still sitting beside the dining table.
The family’s problems started slowly after a modern supermarket complex opened outside the district during the mid-2000s. Smaller food shops throughout the old market streets began losing customers almost immediately.
Some neighboring businesses closed within months.
Others survived only by cutting staff or reducing hours.
Yusuf refused to close the shop.
Even after his health started declining from years of physical work.
By 2007, rising rent prices and increasing supply costs made keeping the butcher shop open almost impossible. Murat had already started discussing moving abroad for work with several friends from the neighborhood.
Neighbors later remembered Yusuf sitting outside the closed shop during evenings after business slowed, watching fewer and fewer people pass through the market street each year.
After Emine developed serious respiratory problems linked to years working around refrigeration and damp storage rooms, the family finally decided to leave the district and move closer to relatives inland.
The relocation happened quietly.
Most neighbors only realized the apartment was empty weeks later.
When the building was eventually sold years later, the apartment still looked almost ready for the Arslans to return.
The dishes remained in the cupboards.
The heater still stood beside the wall.
And inside the kitchen, Emine had left a note attached to the refrigerator:
“Buy fresh parsley before Friday if the market is still open.”
