‘Grandma Narina was the only grandmother I got to know and spend some time with. She used to call me “yavrum”’, says her granddaughter, Erifyli Souvatzidou. Now, ‘the dowry from Kaisareia’ belongs to Erifyli along with her sweet memories of Gradma Narina and the refugee house in Kokkinia.
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.