Last night we went to out for dinner to celebrate the one year anniversary of my Grandfathers death. I think it was more of an Irish celebration than a Greek one. The Greeks normally have a somber quiet dinner, while the Irish have a party to celebrate the person’s life, which is exactly what we did. We told stories, drank Ouzo (his drink of choice in Greece), ate a lot of fantastic food, and had a great time. The restaurant we went to was in the Kinezi section of Chrisoupoli – Kinezi means Chineese in Greek- but there were no Chineese people in the area or the entire town.
There were many stories about my grandfather that different people had, and my Uncle who arrived a few days before has some great memories of a lot of them. He was older than my dad and was allowed to go around the village when they were younger.
This dinner last night was one of the best ways to celebrate Papou’s (or Big Papou as his great grandchildren called him) life. He would welcome anyone into his house like they were his own and had the sweetest way about him all the time. His generosity didn’t just extend to the family but anyone who he encountered on the street, in a restaurant or while he was picking my cousins and I up from school when we were little. I will always miss him and I think about him almost every day but I know he is with my Grandmother…and she is nagging the hell out of him!
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