by Acrivi Artemis Koutavas Anninos Georgelos

Our return to Greece was in the spring of 1931. We had a two-story house near Neon Phaleron, that Dennis and Spyros had purchased. Helen and I went to live there. In the summer we took the children and went to stay with my Mother in law in Cephallonia. She was a kind-hearted woman from a good family. Her father was an Anninos and she was an Anninos by marriage also, but not by kin of course.

She was very proud of her daughters in law. She was always laughing and singing. She did everything she could to please us. She was part of the life around me. I noticed that life was beautiful. Life in the villages of Greece is beautiful as is the nature of Greece. You can rise early in the morning and see the unsurpassed beauty of a Greek sunrise. Later that same day in the still of the evening, somewhere in the distance, you can hear the sound of sheep’s bells. I loved being with the villagers, listening to their songs, letting my soul rest with nature’s serenity all around me, waiting to see that moment sent from heaven, the sunset. What sight is more beautiful than to see that brilliant star going down slowly, leaving behind a majestic conflagration as if the horizon were on fire. Then that too vanishes and you are left with a dazzled soul. Then suddenly, right near you, you hear boys and girls singing and laughing as if they don’t have a care in the world. It could be such a surreal moment that you sit there as if in a dream, but then you come to your senses, back to reality, then you too begin to sing with joy and become a part of this merry moment that life has given you.

Alas, life is not all fun. If it were all fun, then we would not learn how to tell the difference between joy and sorrow. I am reminded of something I once read.

There was a good man who built-in is imagination the picture of a perfect world. This world would have no sorrow and no worries of any sort. He prayed to God in Heaven and Lord of the Earth that he be allowed to build this world, to see his dream come true. God answered his prayer, and in a very short time, it was done. Everything was beautiful on this earth, no poverty, no envy, no ingratitude. All men and women were happy because everyone knew everything. There was no need for schools or books. Hospitals did not exist because there was no illness, no accidents. Everyone was healthy. There were no courts because all people were good, no differences between them to argue over and settle. There were no churches, no priests because there were no sinners. The good man had created the perfect world.

One day, while the good man was admiring his good work, God appeared to him.

“Everything is lovely here, but where are all the people?” God asked. “I do not hear voices, nor laughter. I hear no crying, nor prayer.”

The man replied,

“No, my people do not need any of those things at all Holy Father. They don’t cry or pray because they have no fear, nor pain, no worries, because they are all healthy, and they are all immortal. “

“Yet,” said God, “They do not appear to be happy, because they do not laugh!”

Suddenly the good man hung his head and answered God slowly.

“No, they do not laugh, nor do they rejoice” He paused and then said, “That is because they do not know either joy or sorrow.”

“So” God replied, “Are you are telling me that your people have no soul?”

“No” replied the man, “They do not, they are as good as dead. I see that now. I clearly see that it is much sadder for them than if they had to struggle and suffer.”

Near the end of a wonderful summer, came the day when I received a telegram from my mother. She wanted me to return to Piraeus at once. Summer was almost over but September is such a beautiful time in Cephallonia that we wanted to spend the month there too. So I went to Piraeus alone leaving Helen and the children behind. When I arrived in Piraeus, I was very anxious to find out what was wrong. My mother told me that my sister Sophia wanted to break off her engagement.

She was engaged to a very fine man from America, who was much older than her and for whom she did not care for or like at all. She did not like him from the very beginning of their relationship. I insisted that he was a fine man and reminded her that she had consented to be married.

That did not matter to Sophia, for now, she was in love with another man, Charidemos. My parents considered this to be a disgrace, but Sophia declared that Charidemos would be her husband or no one would. She said that if our parents forced her to marry the Greek-American she would do so only to please them and she would be terribly unhappy and the marriage would most likely kill her.

“Is that what you want for me?” she pleaded.

This was a serious matter, and Mother called me back home to support her, to help convince Sophia to keep the engagement. I was not inclined to persuade Sophia to marry someone she did not love. A family conference was held. I will not go into detail about all that was said and to whom, let us say that after deliberation it was decided that the engagement ring would be returned to America, thus the undesirable match would be dissolved.

I returned to Cephallonia, taking Sophia with me. We spent the month of September there and then all of us returned to Piraeus. Six months later Sophia happily married Charidemos. She now has two boys and one girl.

In 1933 Spyros came to Greece and purchased a property near the Piraeus post office for rental income. He bought this property in the name of all three Anninos brothers. Spyros stayed with us for a short time and then returned to the States. We were left behind, in Greece where the boys soon started to attend the Metaxas School. Spyros went back to America with the understanding that he would return to Greece within two years at the latest. I was not happy with this kind of life, him in the States, myself, and the boys in Greece. But there was nothing I could do about it. I was looking forward to and hoping for a better time when we could all live together.

Time went by, the two years grew shorter, but in late 1934 another event changed our plans.

Gerasimos, my brother-in-law, had been living in the States illegally. He was summoned to the Immigration Office and was then deported back to Greece. Not long after he returned, he met and became engaged to Mary. In the meantime, Spyros, who had served time in the United States Army, and was an American citizen, sponsored Gerasimos to come to America legally. As a citizen himself and as a brother he could do this. Gerasimos returned to America, leaving Mary behind. She would join him as soon as she could.

Business was good at the brother’s shop in Norfolk. There was talk among the brothers, that since Mary was going to America, that perhaps I should return as well with the children. Because business was going so well the brothers, the whole family should stay longer in the States. My boys had been attending the Metaxas School for the last year. The second-year I had them transferred to the Lyceum Athena school in Piraeus so they would be closer to me. The school tuition was expensive. Keeping two households, one in Greece and one in the states was also difficult to maintain. Spyros reminded me of the cost of both those things.

So having been presented with financial problems that I could not deny and to the solution to which I could not object, we all got ready once again to journey across the ocean, and in 1935 Mary and I and the children left for the States. Helen and her children would have to stay behind. Helen was not a citizen and her permit to be in America had expired.

We arrived in Norfolk, and all took up residence together in the same house. I did not get along with Mary. We were two types of people and it was just not possible. A certain coolness developed between the two of us. But my husband, to save money, was determined that we would remain under the same roof. The house was too small, not a suitable place at all to raise young children. They would go and spend their free time at the store which was also not a good or right place for them. They were children and as children often do, they would hear things, adult things in the store, and repeat what they heard, using some words they should never use. They were fast learning to be discourteous, forgetting the good manners they learned at school in Greece. They were also forgetting their Greek language. Their speech became a conglomeration of Greek and English, which was only natural because they were attending an American school. All of these things made their father start to fret. The boy’s behavior made him start to think that once again we should return to Greece. His fretting lasted for a long time.

We had been back in Norfolk for about a year when Dennis decided he was ready to return to Greece again. He was having trouble with his legs and his doctor told him it was rheumatism and a change of climate would be good for him. Spyros and I decided that this would be a great time and opportunity to send Andrew with him. So around the end of 1936, the two of them, my son and his uncle, left for Greece. Almost as soon as Andrew arrived in Piraeus, he was re-enrolled in the Lyceum Athena school. All started going well for him, for a short time.

Andrew had been in Greece for some months when I learned from the family that he was not feeling well, he was running a low-grade fever, which worried and upset me. When I first heard about this, I assumed or hoped that it was nothing serious and that it would soon go away. Then I was informed that he was in a pre-tuberculosis condition and that many of his glands were affected. After I heard this I could not sleep at night or rest during the day. Spyros did not wish to bring Andrew back to America, and since we were not planning to settle permanently in America, we decided that I would return to Greece to be with our son. So in 1937, Augustine and I left once more for Greece. Before I left I checked with our family doctor and asked him what could be making Andrew sick, and run such a low-grade fever. The doctor told me that my son could have bad teeth or some other infection, something in his system causing his fever.

As soon as I arrived in Greece, I took Andrew to the local dentist for a complete checkup. His teeth needed a lot of work. He still had baby teeth and the dentist had to extract five or six of his molars in the back. Once his dental problems were taken care of his teeth we moved to Chalandri, just outside of Athens. Andrew was soon well again. He suffered no more fever and had no more pain.

We had been in Chalandri for a year when my husband began to complain that he was ailing. Spyros had to have all his teeth pulled. He was sick, depressed, and needed me.

“You would do well,” he wrote me, “To come back here with the children, and later we can return to Greece. I miss you, and I have no one to take care of me.”

Come back to America? Leave Greece again?

What was I to do with this unsettled life? Andrew and Augustine were growing up. They needed to be in school. I had to think of their future. They had to stay somewhere. I knew their father did not want to stay in America, so they would have no future there. I decided to leave them in school, right where they were in Piraeus. I put them in the care of my parents, and then I returned to America by myself.

I could not enjoy my time in Greece or my return to America not without my family together. I could not get to know America and love it. How could I with one foot on each side of the ocean? What was our future, was it to settle in America or not? Was it to go home to Greece to stay?

The children wrote to me often from school, and I wrote them back, and all the time I was miserable without them so we made plans to return to Greece once again.

What else could I do with my unsettled life?

End of Part 4

The Four Green Walls Part 5 The Light In The Fog