Grandma Despoina was born in 1882 in Sinasos. At a very young age, she married Stavros Prokopoglou from Ozgati (Yozgat) in Cappadocia, where they lived and had five children, four sons and one daughter. Stavros was the co-owner of an ouzo distillery. He was responsible for delivering the product to the nearby villages, while his partner acted as shopkeeper. Stavros was killed in an accident in 1908 and Despoina became a widow who had to raise five young children on her own. The family was dealt another blow when Stavros’ partner decided to appropriate his share of the distillery without compensating his late partner’s widow. Despoina was forced to return to Sinasos, to a house that was part of her dowry, in dire straits and without any family support.
To make ends meet and provide for her family, she started weaving carpets on her loom. As the children grew up, they also started looking for work in order to help their mother out. That’s how Despoina’s son, Ioakeim, along with his older brother, Prodromos, found themselves in Constantinople in search of employment. They were first put up by an aunt and then Ioakeim started sleeping in the storage rooms of the stores he worked for. After working in several different stores, he found a job at the grocery store of Ioannis Ktypiadis, who soon promoted young Ioakeim to a better paid position in recognition of his skill and hard work.
Despoina Prokopoglou and her four sons reached Greece in 1924 as exchangeable refugees. Her daughter, Katina, had got married and had been living in Constantinople for years which rendered her exempt from the population exchange. Initially, the family settled in a house in Kato Patisia and Despoina’s sons developed their various business activities in Piraeus, achieving success through perseverance and hard work. They changed their last name to Prokopiadis and, even though they came from different professions, they collaborated to found the ‘Alaska’ United Confectionary Stores, securing a comfortable life for them, their mother and their respective families in their new homeland. Grandma Despoina’s handmade carpet was one of the few objects she had brought with her from Sinasos and is still in use today, in the living room of her great-granddaughter, Anastasia Sarantari. Its vibrant colours and bold shapes remain impressive even after all these years.
