Joseph had married Despina almost two years ago and they lived in the two-story family house together with his brother Theophilos and his wife Ourania. This house was an inheritance from their father. Along with four shops and another house, which they rented out to Turks. Joseph and Theophilos' family was wealthy, but both brothers had succeeded through their own merit. Joseph owned an egg shop on Beyazit Street, while next to him Theophilos had opened a butcher shop. Their house was just a few meters away.
Both Ourania, who married first, and Despina later, although they had their own dowry, were considered very lucky to have married the Youmourtazis brothers. Raised in Cihangir, a neighborhood considered aristocratic, according to the standards set by the era and place, they were friends before becoming sisters-in-law. Their houses, Despina's on the first floor and Ourania's on the second, had the same layout and almost the same decoration. A large living room, a large dining room, two bedrooms, and a kitchen filled with pots, pans, baking trays, and all those things the two housewives used to delight the family but also themselves.
The rivalry between them was noble, about who would succeed better in cooking, but mainly in sweets. Later, Theano would remember her mother, with the expression of a throne taster, before putting out the fire, dripping a drop of syrup from the sweet onto her nail and letting it run. This drop determined whether the frowning expression would give way to a smile of success. It had to stand like a shining pearl on the nail; otherwise, if it ran, it meant the sweet had not "set" properly. Then Despina would stoke the fire, blowing and puffing over it, until she achieved the right consistency for the sweet.