A MAN'S SORROW CUTS DEEPER

Advice of a wise lion...

Opening up to someone was never easy for Can Divit. And speaking openly about his feelings was never on his list of priorities. Aziz Divit knew it. He watched first hand how Can grew up from a boy with hurt feelings and fear of abandonment into a man with a heavily guarded heart.

Aziz also realized how much Can opened up since he fell in love with Sanem. The day he received a call from Can so many moons ago, letting him know that he finally found in Istanbul what he searched for all over the world brought so much peace to Aziz. He knew his son. His son never committed to something he was not 100% certain of. And more than anything, his son never used unnecessary words. He said what he meant, and meant what he said. So much so, that Aziz did not need to read between the lines or search for the meaning of Can's words. And he trusted in his son's judgement.

Aziz's heart felt saddened that he could not be by Can's side when Can and Sanem got engaged. Of Can's parents, Hüma was there, but Aziz was not. And he knew how Can felt about that as well. The one parent whose presence and support mattered to Can wasn't there by his side that day. Aziz swore to himself that when there would come a day when Can needed him again, he would come to him. He would come and support his beloved son. And he did just that when Can had returned and stayed out of the fear for Aziz's health. Can stayed, and opened his heart yet again to Sanem. Aziz knew how much that trust in Sanem had cost Can. Sanem had her family's support, where Can had none if it wasn't for Aziz. Emre was there but Aziz knew that Can had reservations toward Emre when it came to truly opening up and revealing his feelings.

Aziz stayed and supported his son. He took every opportunity to guide Can through the difficulties of life. He never pressed Can like Hüma did, he only guides him. He never would have imagined how much close he would come to loosing Can. And he never would have imagined just how much Can would come to rely on his father's support and guidance after the accident that no one saw coming. Can was hurt. But more than that his heart got so hurt that it chose to block off all memory of Sanem. No one could figure out why Can lost the memory of the past two years. But Aziz had an inkling, which he chose to keep to himself. Perhaps the instant that his heart felt the impact of the accident and he saw Sanem being thrown out of the car, it closed itself off to any possibilty of her not surviving, as it knew it would never survive without Sanem's heart's love? Maybe that was the key to it all? Can's fear took over all of his trust in their love? If that was so, maybe the key lay in Can's heart being shaken to understand what life without Sanem really felt like?

Realizing this, Aziz attempted to speak with Can in the most delicate and indirect way possible, when he saw Can sitting outside on the back porch. He saw Can's angst, he felt his pain. He asked Can what bothered him, though he already knew the answer would spell Sanem's name. But what he did not expect was for Can to reveal that he did not feel any love for Sanem in his heart. He tried, and tried his best. But the love he may have felt for her was so foreign to him now. Being a man who needed all the answers, Can could not figure out why he fell in love with Sanem. And that bothered him. He had not realized that because he concentrated so much on the WHY, he built a wall so high around his heart that Sanem's light stood no chance of reaching his heart. Her love for him stood no chance in revealing to Can the answer to his WHY...

So Aziz offered him his best words of wisdom. His most sincere words to date. The honesty in his words reached Can like never before. Aziz told him to search for Sanem in all parts of his heart, all parts of his soul. Those darkest and most hidden places in Can's heart and soul had been filled with Sanem's love. She healed him from deep within, and that is what made their love stronger and like none other before. She build him up from the ground up. The light of her love lit his heart in a way no one was ever able to do before her. She never floodded him with her demands or dishonest intentions. She never looked to benefit from their love. She only loved, and always left the choice up to him. And it was Can who chose to trust her. Aziz told Can if he ever regained his memory, if he ever remembered how much she did for him, his words of no longer finding love for her in his heart would hurt them both, but it would hurt Can the most, because then he would understand what loosing the love of his life felt like because of his own actions. If he ever regained his memory, only to find Sanem's hand no longer holding his, his heart might not survive it...

That is how Aziz saw Can's and Sanem's love. To love his child and his child's one and only love gave Aziz so much gratitude. He had lived his life. He made choices he may not have been proud of, but he stood by those choices. He was a wise lion, and offered his best lion's advice to Can. To trust in Sanem. To trust in Sanem's love. To give their love his best possible chance. If they tried and succeeded, he would be pleased with himself in the end. If they tried and failed in the end, at least he would be honest enough with himself to know that they tried their best. Because not trying and failing would be the worst possible world, where he let Sanem down, and he let their love down. And Can finally understood that his father's advice was worth every word his heart had heard. He realized he would give it all that he had, and he hoped that in the end his heart would come to survive whatever awaited them in the luck of their lives.