My grandmother on my mother’s side was like a heroine out of One Thousand and One Nights. Her name was Narina, which became Maria in Greek, and she came to Greece from Yozgat in Kaisareia (Kayseri) with her husband, Grandpa Symeon, a merchant who traded in fur and carpets all over Europe. They arrived via Constantinople, leaving behind relatives as they were passing through Greece: some in Kavala, Vasilis and Ierousalim Katemidis in Thessaloniki, Aunt Veta and Uncle Giorgos Doxopoulos in Nea Ionia of Volos. They survived the hardships of the first, difficult years in Greece and settled in Kifisia, in a beautiful house where they hosted great feasts and parties for the extended family. Grandpa Symeon died in 1933 and Grandma Narina became a widow who had to raise three children on her own, Evdokia, Iordanis and Viktoria, my mother. With no income and no house, the family moved to a refugee house in Kokkinia, close to Narina’s brother, Thodoris Katemidis, and his wife, Marianthi, who had already settled down at the end of Sachtouri Street.
Grandma Narina was the only grandmother I got to know and spend some time with. She used to call me ‘yavrum’. She would get up every morning and whitewash the hen coup in the backyard next to the mulberry tree, while the hens would cluck away and lay eggs for the precious little grandchildren to eat. We would load those lucky hens on the truck along with the rest of our household and go on holidays to Kifisia and Nea Erythraia for three months every summer to get some fresh air and swim in the sea of Loutsa, where my Dad would take us every day after work and on Sundays. Grandma died in 1962, closing a major chapter of our family history. Today, it’s her granddaughter, Erifyli Souvatzidou, who owns ‘the dowry from Kaisareia’ along with her sweet memories of Gradma Narina and the refugee house in Kokkinia.
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Object description written by: Erifyli Souvatzidou
