Categories
Tags
Decades Referenced
Locations Referenced
Astros, Kynouria, Athens, Halifax, Montreal, Toronto
Occupation(s)
Domestic, Hospital Staff
Zoe Paravalos (née Dikaios) was born in 1936 in Astros, Kynouria. After receiving vocational training in Athens through ICEM, she migrated to Canada by ship, arriving in Toronto in 1958. She worked as a domestic and met her future husband in one of the homes where she was employed. Zoe remained closely connected to the Greek community through St. George Church and later ensured her children received a Greek education. She recalls her first visit back to Greece and expresses her pride in her heritage.
Translation: Lia Karokis
Alexandros: Hello!
Zoe: Good morning.
AB: My name is Alexandrosandros Balasis. Today is February 2, 2024, and we are in Toronto.
ZP: Yes.
AB: I want you to tell me your first and last name.
ZP: My name is Zoe Paravalos. And my maiden name is Dikaios.
AB: Dikaios.
ZP: Of Charalambos and Panagiotitsa, my parents.
AB: And tell me when were you born?
ZP: 1936.
AB: 1936. You told me you wanted us to say a prayer before we started.
ZP: Yes, I would like us to say a prayer. Should I stand up?
AB: Yes, if you want.
ZP: In the name of the Holy Trinity. Our Father who art in heaven: hallowed be thy name: thy kingdom come: thy will be done, as in heaven and on earth: give us this day our daily bread: And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our trespassers: and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy and save us. Amen, I thank you.
AB: Thank you. So, I want you to tell me where you were born.
ZP: In Astros, Kynourias. My parents were farmers and we lived a little outside the village and had a few sheep, and we spent our days with the animals, the fields, the orchards. You understand what rural life is like in the countryside.
AB: Did you help your parents?
ZP: Yes.
AB: So what did you do?
ZP: I also helped in the fields and orchards. With the sheep we had, such a normal life in the countryside, of rural life, until I was 22 years old.
AB: Did you go to school?
ZP: Let me tell you about my school, that I could not go to school, let me tell you the reason. Because we had the wars, we had the Germans, we had the Italians. We had the Civil War, which was more, more difficult for the whole world. We could not, when we went to our fields, because the army wouldn’t let us take food with us, so we would not give it to the rebels, you know? And life was very, very, very difficult.
AB: What do you remember from the wars and the Civil War?
ZP: I remember when they were brother killing brother. The Greeks, that is, when the Civil War broke out. A girl from our neighbouring village, the children who go to high school, she had joined the guerrillas, and they had set up a barricade on a road, taking them to high school from one village to another, and they killed 16 children on the road.
AB: Who were they?
ZP: They were Greeks. Greeks, and this girl from our neighbouring village did this. And it was so deadly that one of the children who lived put some blood on his face, that he was dead, and he heard what she said. She says, we ate the dogs, we ate them, and she says, he couldn’t leave there, she says, and she says, she says, I’ll put the knife through his mouth, he tells me, with the blood. You understand how shameful things really were. Neighbours who hated each other, yes. He betrayed him to do me harm in his wife’s family, there are many shameful things, too many. We lived through difficult years, but let me tell you, Alexandros, back then we didn’t have as much stress as we do today. They lived very rough lives, we were hungry and naked and barefoot. I didn’t even finish the third grade. I read though. But I don’t know how to spell. I am very, how can I tell you, I mean I have no complaints about life because that’s how it was, I am happy, I am, let me tell you, even though I lived such a difficult life. We had our parents, they were very good, dear, respected people. They didn’t tell us much, but they taught us, with their lives.
AB: Other events, that’s what you told me, but did other events take place in the village?
ZP: In what?
AB: In the Civil War.
ZP: In the Civil War, yes. Two neighbours who hated each other, these rebels who had gone out went and took them, him and his daughter. And they took them to a place. They dishonoured her in front of him, in front of the father. And they slaughtered them on the street.
AB: And did your own family have problems with the rebels?
ZP: Ours, no. It didn’t. My father had a cousin, and he said to him, hey, Tasos, he says, we’re killing each other, he says, brothers, let’s not do this to each other, he says, don’t say that again, Charalambos, he says, I’ll cut off your head. We never had a problem again.
AB: Were people leaving the village to emigrate?
ZP: Not then. No.
AB: When are we talking now?
ZP: In 1958.
AB: Good.
ZP: It hadn’t started yet.
AB: Yes, yes, yes.
ZP: Many years, but many had gone to America, you know how...
AB: In the past.
ZP: In the past. But back then, no one left except... I was the first from my village to leave.
AB: And, did you have relatives? Since many didn’t leave, you probably didn’t have relatives either.
ZP: I didn’t have anyone.
AB: Abroad?
ZP: No. Simply put, we went to school, in Athens, for 6 months and then...
AB: What school is that? Explain it to me a little more.
ZP: For home economics and for English, I don’t remember the name.
AB: Yes, yes, yes. What did you do there? I want you to tell me.
ZP: We learnt English, and we actually cooked in the kitchen to learn how to cook, how to serve, how to behave, where we would go to such houses, of course. We also gave exams at the end. We finished there, and it was time to leave.
AB: How did you find out about the school?
ZP: That was arranged by the state. It had been taken care of for us. This whole program had been taken care of.
AB: Yes, I mean how did you find out about it and decide to go to Athens to study at this school for 6 months?
ZP: Because they had sent us a letter from...
AB: Tell me about that.
ZP: They had sent us a letter saying that we had to go to Athens to school for so long, for 6 months, and when we were finished we would leave.
AB: Obviously, you would have made an application, but they sent you the letter?
ZP: Of course. They had sent us... Yes, we applied and they sent us the letter that we... How should I tell you...that we were accepted. And we went straight to the school.
AB: And did you apply? Your parents?
ZP: My brother did.
AB: And how did he know what he was doing exactly? Did he understand?
ZP: He knew, they had told him. He was in Tripoli, as I told you. He studied in Tripoli and that’s where he learned about it. And there he went to some… I don’t know what it was where he applied and they said they accepted me and...
AB: He didn’t ask you?
ZP: He didn’t ask me, no. But I accepted it later. Of course, and without knowing what would happen to me in the world...in the future when I would leave.
AB: Have you been to Athens before?
ZP: I had been there once.
AB: And how did you find Athens? Now that you’ve been here longer... And where did you live in Athens? What was it like? Tell me a little bit about those 6 months, describe them a little bit. What did you do during that period?
ZP: I lived in a house of ours and went to school. Until I finished. That was it, nothing more.
AB: And how did you like Athens? I mean, the transition from the village to the bigger...
ZP: Life was nicer, better. Of course I didn’t work at all. I just went to school.
AB: What do you mean by the nicer? What was better?
ZP: How can I tell you, l we worked outside in the fields, which were difficult, which were heavy jobs. There was rest, school, okay, okay. I was doing well. Although I hadn’t gone to school, only until the third grade, and I didn’t finish the third grade because I couldn’t. But all is well, Alexandros.
AB: And tell me again. Did you go to this school every day?
ZP: Every day.
AB: And you did, you told me, cooking. What other things did you do?
ZP: And English.
AB: And English. Probably. Do you remember doing anything else?
ZP: No, we didn’t do anything else.
AB: But they told you where you were going, what is it?
ZP: Yes, they talked to us. They told us, it’s not that easy where you’re going, because you won’t have relatives. You’ll get sick, it’s difficult. It’s not that easy, they told us. But, anyway. We, since we had decided, didn’t back down. There were 40 of us girls when the ship Frederiki spread her wings – 40 girls.
AB: Well. And how did you come to Canada? I mean how did you decide on Canada? Was that decision made by the school? Specifically, did the school say, you here, you there, or were you given a list of countries you wanted to go to?
ZP: No, no. Only for Canada.
AB: It was only for Canada.
ZP: Only for Canada.
AB: Okay. And tell me later. The process? What was the immigration process like? Visas, passports, things like that. ZP: Passport.
AB: Did you have any medical tests?
ZP: Yes.
AB: What do you remember? What was it like at that time? Do you remember it?
ZP: Okay, it wasn’t difficult. It was okay. We spent 14 days at sea. We got out in Halifax.
AB: Just a minute, then. So, you left Piraeus; had you said goodbye to your parents before?
ZP: In Piraeus.
AB: Did they come and find you?
ZP: My father.
AB: How was that moment?
ZP: It was difficult.
AB: Did you know you would return one day? Did you know you would never see him again? How was it? What were you thinking about?
ZP: Let me tell you, when you’re young, you don’t think about the bad, the difficult things. The separation was difficult, but okay. Let me tell you, I wasn’t afraid at all. I had peace in my soul because I love Christ very much and I always prayed. And I didn’t find any difficulties here. We got out in Halifax, the train picked us up, and brought us to Montreal.
AB: The whole process on the ship, how was it? What did you do for 14 days on the ship?
ZP: Nothing. We ate and slept.
AB: I’ve heard that there were parties, there were instruments.
ZP: No, there weren’t any such things.
AB: There weren’t any.
ZP: No, no. We went to the dining room, ate, chatted among ourselves.
AB: What did you talk about? Do you remember?
ZP: How we would each find it there. Many of the girls even got sick from the sadness, the sea also bothered them. Sorry, they also vomited, many of them were sick. I have to tell you, I had no problem at all.
AB: Yes, tell me.
ZP: We got out in Halifax like I told you.
AB: Yes, what did you do in Halifax?
ZP: They just took us to a place and we ate. We slept there for 1 night and the next day we left on the train to Montreal.
AB: How long were you on the train?
ZP: I don’t remember how long it was, Alexandros.
AB: Did you arrive in Montreal?
ZP: In Montreal.
AB: In Montreal, what did you do?
ZP: When we arrived in Montreal, they asked us if we had any… Should we go to other villages or to Toronto, out. I asked, there were some of my fellow villagers here and I asked, I want you to go to Toronto.
AB: Did you have contact with these people, though?
ZP: No. But I knew where these kids were. And I came to Toronto. By train, they brought us to immigration and from there, a taxi would pick us up and take us straight home.
AB: And tell me about that, too. When you got to Toronto, what happened? You told me about the taxi. What exactly happened?
ZP: The taxi picked me up with... I had a small trunk with my personal belongings. The taxi took me to the family that had made contact with the Immigration [Department], they would have contacts, and he took me directly there.
AB: When was that? What year are we talking about?
ZP: In June 1958.
AB: In June 1958. And?
ZP: The life was… Then it hurt. I longed for my parents; I missed my homeland. I cried many times.
AB: What was the family where they took you?
ZP: They had two girls. They had two little girls. Good people. And do you know how much they paid us, Alexandros? $2 a day.
AB: Were they Jewish, perhaps?
ZP: Jewish.
AB: And what job did they do?
ZP: They had their own jobs, I think, but I don’t know why… After a month, I went out and went to St. George’s, to the church and I got in touch with my friends. They were my compatriots, they were in Guelph, if you’ve heard, and one of them came and saw me at the house where I was, Mr. George. And he says to me, you know Zoe, I have a, a family from Doliana. Doliana is next to Astros. And I want, when you have a day off on Sundays, to go there to keep company them there, to pass the time. Okay. He came and picked me up, and we went to this family. And that’s where I met my partner.
AB: Okay. I want you to tell me now about the family you worked for. The first family you started when you first came. What exactly did you do there? Did you do what you studied in school? Did you cook? Did you clean? What did you do?
ZP: I didn’t cook. I just cleaned and ironed.
AB: And how did you get on with them?
ZP: I had a good time. It wasn’t... Many girls didn’t have a good time in houses like that. I didn’t have a problem. I didn’t have a problem. In the meantime, after I went out, we got engaged a few months later. And one evening we were sitting with the little one watching TV and she saw my ring. And she runs into the kitchen and says: “Mom, Mom, Zoe has a ring.” From then on, they treated me much better than before.
AB: Really? Why?
ZP: I don’t know. But they didn’t mistreat me, I can’t say I had a bad time, but, quite simply, Alexandros, I didn’t understand everything. All the things we had done at school couldn’t help me at work, my English was poor, maybe because I hadn’t gone to school and that didn’t help me either.
AB: And, about Saint George, how did you find out about it?
ZP: That was the only one. We heard it on the radio, of course. It had a Greek program every Saturday and we heard about the church that it is.
AB: What did you hear?
ZP: That Saint George is on such and such a street and that’s where we found out, and that’s where all the girls went.
AB: Did you have any friends, did you have any friends at first?
ZP: I had girlfriends.
AB: Greek women, I imagine.
ZP: Greeks.
AB: Were they also on this program?
ZP: Like me.
AB: They had started from Athens, right? Did you make this trip together? Yes.
ZP: And there we met others in the church.
AB: What was the church like, when you went for the first time, so many kilometres away from Greece? What was it like going to church?
ZP: This little church, Saint George, was still very poor. Now they have made it beautiful, with photographs. It was poor, poor. But it gathered all the Greeks there. Saint George was the only church.
AB: And how did you feel when you entered and saw it?
ZP: Emotion.
AB: What did you think, when you saw it, a church so far away?
ZP: You felt some warmth. That you are not lost in the depths of life. That there is a Temple of God here too. And, I felt very good. Very good.
AB: And you told me that you got engaged. How did all this happen?
ZP: In this, the family that I went to, my husband rented there. My husband lived there.
AB: Okay. Wait a minute. You told me about a family you went to every Sunday.
ZP: This family.
AB: This family, where did you go? What exactly did you do?
ZP: I was just going about my day, and my husband was staying there.
AB: Were you, you know, hanging out? I mean, were you working?
ZP: No, no. Quite simply, we drank coffee, talked about things, the village. Because my mother was from Doliana, where the family was, and we had something to say.
AB: Okay. I understand. And you met your future husband.
ZP: With my husband.
AB: How did you meet? What happened?
ZP: When he saw me, we went out for coffee, again and again. And we agreed.
AB: And you continued to work at...
ZP: Yes, I continued working until we got married. We got married that same year in December, on December 28.
AB: Where?
ZP: In Saint George.
AB: How did your husband get here?
ZP: My husband jumped his boat in Montreal.
AB: Yes.
ZP: He stayed there for a while and came to Toronto with a friend who knew this family that I’m telling you about, who was from my mother’s village.
AB: And, during this whole period, in the beginning, did you have any contact with Greece?
ZP: Only by letter.
AB: By letter. But you sent and received.
ZP: Of course.
AB: What did you say in those letters?
ZP: I said what I was doing here. I missed my parents. The customs and traditions of the homeland. Our homeland is a blessed place, and I love it very much. If you saw outside on the side, I also have the flag if you saw. And I am proud to be Greek.
AB: What did your parents say to you? Do you remember those letters?
ZP: They hurt me a lot because I was the first one from the household, and they would be thinking what I was going through. A girl in a foreign country and a village girl, right? What would happen to me here? But when I got engaged and we got married, they were happy too. After a year, I brought my brother, then my other brother, and my sister. We are four children. Life went on. And here, Alexandros, life wasn’t that easy. We got very tired. There were no jobs back then. A lot of people were coming from Hungary. There were 700,000 here in Toronto alone at the time. We worked very hard. We had two children. We had illnesses. But thank God, we are well.
AB: What was Toronto like when you first arrived?
ZP: It was like a village back then.
AB: Yeah, huh?
ZP: Yes. You would walk around at night, and you weren’t afraid of anything. The world was so quiet. It wasn’t like it is now. It was difficult. We went through many difficult days. Thank God we made it this far.
AB: What did your husband do?
ZP: He was a cook.
AB: In a restaurant? Where?
ZP: Down in the city centre in one... It had changed a lot... two or three had changed… but the first one was down in the city centre.
AB: And when you got married, did you continue to work?
ZP: Me? Yes.
AB: Really? In the same family?
ZP: No, no. I left there. And I got a job in a nursing home, I remember.
AB: In which nursing home?
ZP: It was called Adam Avenue.
AB: And what did you do there?
ZP: Very simply, I fed the elderly and gave them water. Then I left. Then I got pregnant and at 40 days I went back to work because I had to work. After a while, I went to Toronto General, the hospital– if you’ve heard of it– it’s basically in the city centre. I worked at dental... How do we say it in Greek, I forgot.
AB: In dentistry?
ZP: I got a pension from there.
AB: And what did you do in that...?
ZP: There...
AB: Actually, when are we talking about now? Approximate dates?
ZP: It would have been 1963. 1963 to 1964. There, I sterilized all the instruments used in the operating room and packed every package the doctors needed. It was very good. I had good people. I had a great time. And from there, I received my pension at the age of 58.
AB: I want you to tell me. Did you go back to Greece during all this time?
ZP: After 10 years.
AB: How was that experience?
ZP: The experience was...
AB: Were you married?
ZP: And married, I had two children. But I got seriously ill here with gallstones, and I was so skinny like a stick. When I left I was chubby, chubby and my father saw me in... He was shocked. You thought he might faint. But thank God.
AB: How long did you stay in Greece?
ZP: Then I stayed for 3 months with the children.
ZP: And what did they tell you?
ZP: What should they tell us?
AB: I mean, the villagers asked, parents? What were the discussions?
ZP: Life was still difficult in Greece when I went. There were no jobs. Those were difficult years. They asked how you were doing? Back then, many girls left and brought their own from there. Nothing different, Alexandrosandros.
AB: Have your parents ever come here?
ZP: They came twice.
AB: When did they come and..?
ZP: They came when I came, where I had gone after 10 years. They came after 2 years and left again. We brought my father here and so he lived here with us for 10 years. And when he passed away, we took him to Greece. That’s it.
AB: How did your parents feel?
ZP: Okay. You know, the people from their village seem to have a hard time here because they were lonely, whereas, you know, in the village they will have a neighbour, they will talk. Here, it was a foreign world. It was difficult for them. But my father stayed, because my mother passed away, and he had to be with us.
AB: I want you to tell me something else. About the relationship you had with the rest of the Greeks throughout this period. You told me you went to church. To Saint George. Did you go regularly afterwards?
ZP: Yes. When I had my leave, I went.
AB: And did you get involved at all with the charity or organizations?
ZP: No with the charity, no, I didn’t get involved with that. There were Greek programs on the radio, you listened to them. There was a cinema, we went.
AB: What cinema did you go to?
ZP: It was in East. I forget, what’s it called? It was there for several years. It’s been closed for many years now. Then slowly, they also had dances here and there, we had gatherings.
AB: Who held dances?
ZP: The Community had it, the Community. Other churches started and were formed. I don’t remember anything.
AB: When you say you did the dances. What exactly did you do? What do you remember?
ZP: They made food. Then they danced to music. There were a few people, of course. There weren’t many people yet.
AB: Did you set up an organization from Astros here?
ZP: Yes, for a while.
AB: Did you go?
ZP: I went for a while.
AB: And what did you do in that organization?
ZP: We had meetings. We had food. We saw the patriots over there. The usual.
AB: What are the usual? I mean, the meetings you had, what did you talk about?
ZP: Our village’s life, everyone’s life here, their family, what problems they have, how much they like it. Something like that.
AB: Did you send your children to a Greek school?
ZP: Yes. My children, yes. They also graduated from high school there.
AB: Do you mean the Greek school?
ZP: The Greek school.
AB: Now explain to me. How does this work with schools? So, what did you do? How did you do it?
ZP: The schools were private and we sent them. At first, we sent them 5 days a week. And they reacted. They didn’t want to go. It seemed difficult to them. Then they went 2 days a week. My daughter speaks Greek very well and writes very well. She likes Greece very much. My son didn’t want to go so much. He said: “No, I don’t want to, I don’t want to get tired, I don’t want to go.” But they speak Greek very well.
AB: Why did you want the children to go to school in Greek?
ZP: Pardon me?
AB: Why did you want the children to go to school in Greek?
ZP: But what else would I give my children in life that would be better? It wouldn’t be their mother tongue. What would you do?
AB: That’s what I’m asking you.
ZP: Of course. I wanted, all Greeks, that is, most of them tried not to lose their language, their customs and traditions. Are you kidding?
AB: Other activities? Did the children go to church, for example?
ZP: At first they went to Sunday School. When they grew up, they started to limit their visits to the church and so on.
AB: What do they do here in catechism?
ZP: What do they do in Sunday School? They talk about religion.
AB: I want you to tell me more. What was your entertainment like? You told me before that you went to the Greek cinema, to clubs. Were there any Greek shops that you went to?
ZP: There were.
AB: Do you remember any of these shops?
ZP: Very few. There was one there near St. George, and that’s when it started and became the heart of the Greeks on the Danforth. If you keep that in mind. That’s where the businesses, the houses, a lot of people lived there. A lot of Greeks there, it was the heart of the Greeks on the Danforth.
AB: Yes.
ZP: Nothing else. What else?
AB: On the Danforth, why did you go? I mean, what kind of shops were there and why did you go?
ZP: Mostly restaurants. They were other shops with shoes, with clothes. Very little at first, then okay. It was enough. Now again slowly, slowly, Danforth will no longer be Greek. Because they’re selling everything from what I see... The people. Their children are not involved in restaurants anymore, they are educated. You know.
AB: During all this time that you were here as a Greek woman, and you worked in the nursing home, you told me also in the hospital, how were you treated because you were Greek? I mean, did you ever feel that you were being sidelined or belittled?
ZP: Not at all. Not at all. Canada accepted us with a lot of love in life. I don’t know others. They didn’t treat me badly at all. They have manners. They thank you for everything you do, they respect you. I experienced that in Canada. I thank them for a second homeland. But most of all, I love Greece very much. And I often tell my wife – you know something, how much I love Greece. And if there was a war, if I could go, I would cook for the soldiers. I love my country so much.
AB: Did you ever think about going back?
ZP: We had made a decision in 1974, but when it happened... We were ready to leave. And when the move to Cyprus happened, do you remember?
AB: I know, I know. What happened? Not what happened in Cyprus? How did you make the decision to go back?
ZP: Because my parents were alone and all of us children were here. And I loved my parents very much and we decided to go. But I tell you, it happened at that time and our plan changed.
AB: Were you scared? Didn’t you think about it again?
ZP: No. Now the years have passed, we’ve grown old.
AB: And your children? Growing up with Greeks? Was there any problem with them? Did they ever complain to you?
ZP: No. Never. My daughter married a Greek man, he was born in Greece. My son was born here, but Greek.
AB: Did you want your children to marry Greeks?
ZP: Of course.
AB: What did you tell them?
ZP: We told them that when they get their own culture, they will both have the same creed. The foreigner will have his own, and it is good for them to marry Greeks.
AB: And did the children agree? Or were there…?
ZP: Many times my daughter didn’t. My daughter was 100% Greek. She didn’t want a Canadian, nothing. My son had a foreigner, a Jewish woman. It was for a while. Then he thought about it. He married a Greek woman.
AB: I also want you to tell me about the relationship you had with the other Greeks here. You told me about the Church and the clubs you went to. Did you want to participate in organizations, in clubs like that? So you sought it out?
ZP: Whenever we could because our jobs didn’t allow us to... We did it somewhere. Whenever we could.
AB: About the pre-war immigrants who had come here from Greece…
ZP: I didn’t meet any of them.
AB: But did you hear things?
ZP: We did.
AB: What did you hear?
ZP: About Saint George, that they bought the Church. They didn’t do much else to tell you...works. I only remember what they had done in the Church. But there were very few Greek women at that time.
AB: What was your opinion of them? Did you have an opinion or not?
ZP: No, because I didn’t... I didn’t even meet anyone to tell you about so I could form an opinion. No. From what I heard, but we were all busy with... with life, with its problems, with our jobs, with our families. With the pain of being abroad. How can I put it? Life was monotonous many times.
AB: Did you have...do you read Greek newspapers here? You told me you listened to Greek radio.
ZP: They did, then they had a little shop that had newspapers.
AB: Where was that?
ZP: On the Danforth.
AB: Did you read?
ZP: Oh, yes, we could...
AB: Do you remember the newspapers you used to read?
ZP: I don’t remember.
AB: The radio you used to listen to? The Greek one?
ZP: It was... forgot what it was called... the one that had the program.
AB: What was that one playing?
ZP: Pardon me?
AB: What was it playing?
ZP: It had various advertisements for various things. It played Greek songs, old songs. They were beautiful. You listened and your heart opened up as you listened.
AB: Do you go to Greece at all?
ZP: I’ve been there many times.
AB: Tell me about that too.
ZP: I went in 2018. I would like to go one more time. To go where I saw the light of day. To this small village. But my husband is 93 years old and is afraid to be left alone. We’ll see.
AB: Did you go regularly before?
ZP: Yeah.
AB: How regularly?
ZP: I’ve been there 10 times.
AB: Summer, winter?
ZP: We took my father there in the summer when he passed away. I’ve been there for Easter. Summer, autumn.
AB: Do you have a house there in Greece.
ZP: No, my brothers have our family home. We had it in Santorini. My husband is from Santorini.
AB: Exactly.
ZP: We had a house there. We gave it to our daughter.
AB: Exactly.
ZP: Now we don’t have our own house. But my husband isn’t... He doesn’t like going to Greece. He’s not homesick. He doesn’t… What can I tell you. Very, very much.
AB: And how do you experience all of this because you tell me very often now in the interview about nostalgia. How did you experience all of this? Were you sad? Were you crying? Were you looking to find other Greeks? All this time when you were feeling this nostalgia?
ZP: No, because since you have a job and you had to be there, and you have your family and you had to be there, you couldn’t change all that to go somewhere else to find because you were sad or crying or I don’t know. How can I tell you? There were times when we felt like that as humans, right? We all feel the same. Don’t we sometimes? How did you feel where you are?
AB: I’ll tell you that too. Okay. It is, you mean these moments exist. We’re not discussing it. I want you to tell me if there’s anything else you’d like to tell me that I didn’t ask you. Something that you might have had in mind or something that’s just now arising from our conversation that I didn’t ask you about and you’d like to say. Or if you want to add something?
ZP: I wanted to tell you about my little village, Astros from the Peloponnese that I told you about. The 2nd Assembly of the Greeks was held in Astros. Theodoros Kolokotronis is from Tripoli where our roots are. And at this Assembly, there was an orchard in Astros that was donated by a rich man, Dimitrios Kartsiotis, and they had a University there at the time, Alexandros. He donated it and they held, next to the University, the 2nd Assembly that was held with the politicians and the military. Theodoros Kolokotronis with his lads, and it was held in a tree called Tilio, it was held under. It was held in 1823, March 29 to April 18. And our lad there was at, at this Assembly. And we are proud of Kolokotronis.
AB: Did you tell these stories to your children here?
ZP: Yes, I would have said more… If I had gone to school and had more knowledge, I would have known more to tell them. But even the things I told them, thank God, they are good.
AB: Well, that’s what I had to ask you. Thank you very much for participating.
ZP: Me too, Alexandros, for giving me the opportunity to talk for a bit. Take care. Good luck with your progress.
AB: Thank you very much.
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