Lost and (much later) Found

Delving into the past continues. This is a sepia photo of my maternal grandmother Sofia on the right, her mother Erinia, seated, and Erinia’s younger sister Varvara, who emigrated to the US probably in the 30s, and died there relatively young, never to return. My grandma was born in 1911 and must have been about 2 or 3 years old here, so the photo must have been taken just before the Great War.

I knew that Aunt Varvara had died young. The only contact I know of (I am sure there must have been more) was a few black and white wedding photos of her first-born daughter Sophia dating back to the 50s. These photos have hung in my great-aunt’s house in Kassos for as long as I remember, and captured my young imagination. In one photo the bride and groom stand in the middle of the picture surrounded by blonde bridesmaids beaming at the camera. Sophia wears a boat-necked, satin gown that highlights her narrow waist, and her long, wavy hair falls over her shoulders. Her husband, tall and fair, also smiles next to her. Throughout my childhood and youth I wondered whether we would ever establish contact with our American cousins…until now, when technology came to the aid of the lost relationship.

I recently took a DNA test, which revealed a relatively close cousin with an English name in the US. I guessed that this must be the Americanised surname of a descendant of Aunt Varvara. I got in touch, he wrote back, and yes, I was right!

Since my return from Athens, I have unearthed old photos and documents, giving a sense of my ancestors past life in Kassos, Egypt and when they took refuge to Athens in the early 60s. At times I feel some regret that in the twenty-three years that I lived close to my grandma and her sisters I did not ask her for more stories of their life. But with the help of older relatives, I may still be able to piece together the fragments of the family history for the sake of my faraway cousins, and also for myself, my children and the Greek branch of the family.