“As kids we would not leave the house a lot. We would spend most of the time at home, studying and knitting. We would knit anything: jumpers, blouses, anything. This way time would just fly. We would rarely go for walks as children. Maybe sometimes in summer we would walk to the beach in Askeli. Our group of friends from school was very tight and we spent a lot of time at home. We didn’t really need to go out to bars and coffee shops. I really wanted to study at the time, but because of the destruction due to the war, I couldn’t go to the university.
My favourite thing to do back then? Fishing! We had a boat called California, after the place my father lived in in America. I also enjoyed going for walks. During summer I would go to visit Evangelia, my cousin. It was difficult for girls to go outside alone at the time, but we were used to it, it didn’t bother us. I finished school in 1952 and a year later I got married. I was 18, going on 19 at the time. My husband was a very good man. We lived all together, my parents, us, my father in law and my brother in law who was an officer in the Navy. He would come visit us for the weekends. We were very happy all together, nobody was disturbed by the fact it was so many of us in the same house. We had a good time together. We would organise home parties, eat and dance. Those get togethers would happen at our house or houses of our friends.
My husband Koulis was a very talented person and I don’t say it because he was my husband. He used to chant in the church and he had a magical voice. He had a great tenor voice as they do in the opera houses. During the day he was a clerk at a naval office and in his free time he was chanting in church. He studied in Athens in Rizarios. It is a school that still exists. Today, if anyone graduates from Rizarios has to become a priest. But at that time it was not a requirement. Koulis has all the qualities to become a priest, but he decided not to in the end. He was an exceptional singer. He died in 1973, 20 years after we got married. He died on the 6th of January, which is the day of Epiphany (Three Kings Day), the day that Jesus was baptised. On that day there is a tradition for people to jump in the sea and catch a cross thrown by the priest.
I suffered a lot after the loss of my husband. In the meantime my father in law died, my father, who reached the age of 91 died and my brother in law, died suddenly. It was a period full of deaths for my family. After that I lived with my mother. My mother, due to the shock, stopped speaking. She spent 8 years in bed before she passed away as well.
My biggest dream was to study and become a teacher. I loved kids very much. I didn’t have children of my own, but Evangelia, my cousin, had a daughter – Eleni. Eleni pretty much grew up in this house. She would spend time during the day with me and then go to her home in the evening. It was a family that was not driven by economic motives, but rather genuine friendship and love, something that is very rare to find nowadays.
My favourite book? I love reading Papadiamantis, he is my favourite. And generally I love literature. I also read a lot of religious books, above all the Bible. I read it everyday. I was teaching kids at a Sunday school which I enjoyed very much. Most of my students at the Sunday school were boys. Later on some of them became famous politicians or business owners. We used to organise a lot of festivals in which kids were participating. We had 95 boys and on top of that a few girls as well.
Church filled a big gap in my life. Church organised summer camps for the children and I was always there, helping with the kitchen and many other things. For the first 8 years I did it in Aigina (island close to Poros) and then on Poros itself.
A place in the world I would like to visit? I’m not really interested to travel abroad. The only place I would like to go to is Jerusalem, to pray there. But at this point of my life I can’t get on the plane.
There is one more thing I would like to tell you. You know, it is normal for couples to get into fights. Each of us has a different character. At the end of the evening you throw it all in the sea and you get into bed and forget about it. Such is life. Life is full of problems, difficulties, diseases, but we should just say “bless the Lord” and carry on.
So I ended up talking about myself all the time. I told you everything as if it was a fairytale…”