Yesterday, the plastic shelf inside the door of my trusty old refrigerator—the compartment that holds bottles and other things—broke. The refrigerator is so old that I wondered whether its retirement might finally be approaching. Then, after breakfast this morning, a light went on in my head.

I remembered that many years ago, when that very shelf first broke and the refrigerator was much younger, my late mother, Reyhan Tunçalp, had asked the repair service for not one replacement shelf but two. ‘If it has broken once, there is something wrong with the design. It will break again,’ she said, and put the spare away for safekeeping.

I opened the cupboard we use for storage, found the spare shelf that had been sitting there quietly for who knows how many years, and fitted it into place. My mother was an extraordinary person, both in intellect and in heart, able to think ahead and attend to everything—from the enormous airports whose construction she worked on at every stage, to wonderful meals, the utility connections in a house, and a broken refrigerator shelf. She was among the first scholarship recipients of TÜBİTAK’s Scientist Training Group. Only the last few jars of her homemade jam remain.

I wanted to share my longing and my feelings. I miss her so much.