Koralia Gougousaki was born circa 1870 in Smyrna. Her family was quite wealthy, since her father owned and managed a large construction crew. She was still young when she met and married Charalampos Tsardanidis, who was working at her father’s business and hailed from the village of Varos on the island of Limnos. Between 1900 and 1916, the couple had six children, three boys and three girls. The family lived on a small alley at the end of Peiron Street near Saint John’s cathedral, the city’s famous Catholic church which still stands today.
On September 13, 1922, the Tsardanidis family was forced to abandon their house when the fire that would soon destroy the city broke out. The family consisted of Koralia, Charalambos and only four of their children, since one of the daughters, Vangelio, had died suddenly a few years earlier and their first-born son was already serving in the Greek gendarmerie. Koralia barely had enough time to shove a few things and an icon of the Annunciation in a makeshift bundle. They first took refuge in a Turkish house owned by a client and friend of Charalambos. Two days later, they found their way to the Italian quarter, where they stayed with a relative, Aunt Erma, for almost two weeks.
At the end of September, the whole family reached the wooden railway platform at Punta and then boarded a ship to Lesvos. From there, they went to Limnos, the birthplace of Charalambos Tsardanidis. A year later, they arrived in Piraeus, where they stayed for a year in a house behind Evangelistria church, and then moved to Ano Kipseli, with the family finally settling down near Koliatsou Square in 1926. Throughout this long and tumultuous journey, Grandma Koralia and her family were accompanied and protected by the icon of the Annunciation. Koralia herself passed it on to her youngest son, Grigoris, and in turn, he gave it to his son, Charalampos, who is its proud owner today. Every time Charalampos Tsardanidis visits Smyrna, he feels like he is going back to his ancestral homeland and he becomes emotional when talking about his family history. The icon of the Annunciation is the link connecting him with his family past.
