Wednesday, November 6, 2024
Vangelis Mavrogiorgis was my mother's younger brother.In our memory, me and my sister cherish the moments when we were young children, and he would play and joke with us when he came to Chios from Athens where he was studying or from America later on. I will never forget the summer of 1972, when, in the middle of the junta, he came to Chios from America carrying in his suitcase some records with covers irrelevant to their content. They were records of a great composer, Mikis Theodorakis, whose name I was hearing for the first time. It was also from my uncle Vangelis that I first heard the name of a great writer, whom he loved very much, Nikos Kazantzakis. Kazantzakis was also banned as a communist by the junta. That summer Ι was preparing for the entrance exams of the Department of Literature. So he would come into the room where I isolated myself to study, and he would ask me about historical figures and events and astound me with his knowledge.
Τhe decision to live and work in US wasn't easy for him. He knew that his parents and older brother, Pantelis, felt unhappy for this, but he really never cut his contact with homeland. Every summer the whole family passed summer holidays in Chios enjoying my mother's home cooked food and conversations with friends and acquaintances. Sick people and fellow villagers were waiting for the kind and understanding doctor from America to give them his opinion.
As he was from a mountain village, swimming was not something he had much to do with. Besides, he was particularly sensitive to the cold (he always wore an undershirt) but, surprisingly, the heat too !
We will fondly remember our summers with his family, the exuberant and warm Aunt Kathy and our beloved cousins, Peter and Eleni.
Throughout the years we maintained regular contact with Uncle Vangelis, and it became even more frequent after my mother's death. We waited for his phone calls to talk about any medical issue of concern. Whatever medical advice we got from other doctors, we had to discuss with him. But with him we also discussed everything that was happening in the world, especially the political situation in Greece and America. He was always informed and sober in his judgments.
Since about a year the calls became rarer and finally stopped. His beloved wife was gone...I realized that my uncle was ill, although he was not one to talk much about himself. It was obvious that he was approaching the end and that he had stoically accepted it....
Goodbye my uncle, we will always remember you! Now you are with all your beloved persons...
Nitsa
