Wednesday, June 6, 2018
Persephoni was my favorite aunt, and the only aunt I had, growing up in Canada! She and I shared a bed from the day she arrived from Greece in 1954 and for the next three years, until she married Theo Costa. In those three years she had to contend with countless sleepless and painful nights from all the kicking she had to endure ... The summer after her marriage, Thea and Theo took me along on their week's vacation to the Laurentians ... I was 9 and I still remember it, sixty years later!
I phoned Thea every Christmas Eve to sing her the Kastorian Kalanta and ask for 'chestnuts and good walnuts'. She made me Baklava (fortunately Evelyn learned to make it as well as Thea's). I still have the beautiful coral-pink sweater that Thea made me for my 16th birthday. She loved me!
I was born in my maternal grand-parents' home in Kastoria ... I was my parents' first child, my grandparents' first grandchild, my Thea Katina's and Thea Persephoni's first niece! I was their 'mo-lee'! Thea Persephoni is the last of those very special people who knew me from my first breath and loved me all these years! As a little girl, she carried me, even after I could walk, because I limped and she wanted to protect me.
"GOLDEN HANDS" ... Persephoni and my mother had "GOLDEN HANDS"! She sewed everything from curtains, to drapes, to dresses, to suits, to coats! She knit/crocheted beautiful tablecloths, bedspreads, and wonderful keepsake items and garments for her grandchildren. She cooked the most delicious, multi-course meals including traditional Kastorian foods like delicious pites, makalo, and saliaroi ...
Thea Persephoni, I will love you and miss you!
