As you will all know I had the privilege to attend Esh’s funeral yesterday, Wednesday 25th November. It was a lovely service albeit with coronavirus restrictions, social distancing and only thirty in attendance. With the family’s agreement I have included below the eulogy and a poem written and read by Esh’s daughters, Suzey and Sera.

Trevor Ridley.

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Esh had four lives:

his formative years in London,
his life in Istanbul,
his life in the US and then
back to London.

In each life, he was a caring, happy and a kind-hearted man who loved to help others.

He started out life one in Famagusta, Cyprus and in 1952 when he was 10 months old, his family moved to London. He grew up in Stoke Newington and from an early age had an affinity with animals. In his back garden he kept hedgehogs, rabbits, pigeons and more. One of his teachers said he would grow up to be a zookeeper, but he decided to be a teacher instead. He attended Trent Park Teachers’ College (later Middlesex University). From there, he found work teaching at secondary school in Chingford where he was given the additional responsibility of managing a gaggle of geese on the site. Ever of lover of games, he played bridge with his colleagues at lunch times.

In 1977 Esh began his second life when he moved to Istanbul, where he took up a science teaching position at Robert College a private secondary school founded in 1863. In addition to teaching, he utilised his interest in animals by collating neglected museum pieces and writing the guide, ‘The Robert College Natural History Museum’. He also wrote a book of games and he coached the football team. In 1984, he headed a student summer trip around Turkey in 1984 named ‘Carpet Ride’ and it was on this tour that he met another teacher, Barbara, whom he would later follow to the US. (Rumour has it that his students thought he had left to be a professional football player.)

Life number three started in the Black Hills of South Dakota where Esh and Barb were married in 1985. They then moved to Fargo, North Dakota, where Esh took on a position as science teacher 40 miles away in Minnesota. Esh’s predominantly Scandinavian students often had trouble with his British English (rubbers and full stops mean something very different in the Midwest), yet he soon won them over with his enthusiasm and good humour. The harsh winters offered Esh an assortment of wildlife that died naturally, for example, a frozen owl, but his most memorable project was a skunk who left it’s scent throughout the school and earned Esh a few nicknames. Meanwhile, Barb was teaching at NDSU while completing an MA when Suzan was born in 1986. In 1988, during a trip to London to visit his parents, Esh was offered a job at St Ignatius, a Catholic boys’ school in Enfield, so the family decided to make the big move to London.

In 1988, the trio started their fourth life back in London in Esh’s childhood home. After a year in Stoke Newington, in 1989, Barb found a teaching job near Esh’s and the family bought a house in Chingford. Esh settled into St Ig’s teaching science and coaching football. In 1991, their second daughter Sera was born and before long, the whole family was travelling to Enfield to their schools. Suzie and Sera’s school was just around the corner from St Ignatius, so Esh would pick them up after school every day and take them back to St Ig’s while Esh finished his marking before heading home. It could be said that Sera and Suzie were the first girls in St. Ignatius after spending so much time there.

Esh was always willing to take on new challenges at St Ig’s and he treasured loved working with the students and staff. He taught biology, was head of GNVQ and for fun, he played bridge at lunch time. He played and coached football and used his taxidermy skills to preserve any expired animals brought to him including a muntjac, ducks, a badger and a rat. A visit to his office was a mix of smiling animals and Star Trek posters and models. The art department found the animals useful as models and the rat had a place in the headmaster’s office, often unnerving cleaners and prospective interviewees.

Esh was always an active team player at work and at home. Barb made the lists and he completed them. Outside in the garden, you could often only see the pipe smoke as he happily gardened, and inside, he energetically painted, wallpapered and laid floors while listening to Elvis Presley. Esh adored music and the movies and passed these interests on to his girls. He enjoyed driving the girls to their various activities including piano lessons and choir practice, where he would often wait for them patiently in the car with his pipe and a book.

As Suzie’s birthday was in the summer time, Esh used his passion for sports to organise innovative sports-themed birthday parties. Suzie’s classmates said that they remembered those birthdays fondly and would look forward to them every year. Esh was so proud of Suzie and Sera’s accomplishments and as the girls grew up, Esh and Barb enjoyed following their choir trips to Venice, Paris and Dublin and also traveling with friends in Europe.

Then in 2014, Esh was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. In typical Esh-mode, he downplayed it, never wanting a fuss, but very slowly, his many skills started seeping away. Even so, he volunteered at the Wildlife Rescue Service in Trent Park when he could drive and thereafter, Barb registered him with Alzheimer’s Research & Society and he participated in three drug trials and a number of Alzheimer’s tests at UCL.

Esh still enjoyed music and games and each week, he would play walking football at Leyton Orient where the players admitted he could make some cracking goals – many of the in the right direction. He was also keen to attend Singing for the Brain, a music club for those living with dementia. These activities gave his weeks structure and the camaraderie he adored.

Esh Sakarya was imminently tolerant man who loved life, people and nature. In turn, he was loved by his students, colleagues, friends and family. He was his own person with his unique way of doing things. In fact, he was what St Ig’s commemoration plate named him: ‘A man for others.’

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Poem for Esh by his daughters, Suzey and Sera:

Esh was a happy, joyful bloke
Who loved to laugh but could not tell a joke
So instead of trying to make you sad
We’ll share a few fun things about our dad

He loved animals, big and small
Cats and rabbits, most of all
But they didn’t have to be alive, all fluffed
The dead ones he found would end up stuffed.

Yes taxidermy, was one of his gifts
Along with giving houses facelifts
Any DIY Mum could wish for
He could execute without a flaw

For years, football played a starring role
You could rely on him to score a goal.
We can’t describe how much it meant
To him when he played at Leyton Orient

He never was a very good cook,
He loved a Star Trek film or James Bond book.
Watching films every day,
‘Can we watch Braveheart?’ he would say.

He loved Christmas concerts in this place,
Singing Good King Wenceslas with a smile on his face,
He’d take us to choir practice here whenever we asked
Waiting in the car outside, with Elvis full blast.

Something that might have caught your eye
Is that he was not a very tall guy
Mum was tall, he was not so
And stood on a box for family photos.

Most importantly, he was patient and kind
Qualities that can be quite hard to find
He was cheerful, full of glee.
So here’s to you, Baba. RIP.