I was born in a small village northern Greece. In the area you could only find farmers, mainly growing tobacco. My parents didn’t have any education. In their time, it was not easy because of the economy. That time my parents didn’t even had a cell phone.
However, my grandfather had some education that time and he was teaching math to school kids in another village, little far from home. He managed to buy a car, Zastava - it was the cheapest car that time, otherwise it was too far for him to go there with a donkey. I always remember his words saying to me “remember my son, education is the most important thing in the world, I don't want you to be like your farther, I want you to study and become an important person”. He was always helping me with all my school assignments.
When my father was young, he got a job on a ship, which required him to travel around the world, leaving my mom all alone to care for two young children — my little brother and me — for many years. At some point, my farther decided to return and started the tobacco business. This tobacco thing it was my nightmare. They were waking up 4 o’clock in the morning to collect tobacco and coming back in the noon. This was due to warm weather, they wanted to go early and collect tobacco as much as possible until the sun start burning. I was always telling them that I will study and I will never be a farmer. Every time I was telling this, my farther was laughing and telling me “lets see”.
Waking up at 4 o’clock in the morning with them was really tough for me. The cold was unbearable and my hands were freezing while I was at the farm. I spent most of the time huddled in the car until sunrise. One day, my parents decided to let me sleep in and locked the main door while they went out. I must have been around 5 or 6 years old at the time. It’s hard to imagine leaving a young child alone at home nowadays, considering the potential risks. My mother told me that, according to the story, I managed to remove the handle from the door and somehow slipped out. When my parents returned from the farm, they found me playing with some boys in the village.
I remember a particular summer when we were planting tobacco using my grandfather’s old tractor. I was the one driving the tractor, maintaining a speed of 3 km/h so that my parents could properly load the tobacco into the machine attached behind it. On that day, I suddenly got a high fever, but since my parents were decided to continue with the tobacco work, I had to walk the entire 3 km back home from the farm, despite feeling unwell. That time, helping your own child was less important than the tobacco business. That night, the fever subsided, but I started developing chickenpox. The next day, my entire body was covered with chickenpox. My father managed to get a cream from the pharmacy to relieve the itching, but some of the blisters I scratched left small scars that are still visible today.
When I was around 10 years old, I lost my grandfather. He had a heart attack in the car while my farther was driving him to the hospital. When he got the heart attack, my farther was driving with one hand and he was pushing his chest with another hand, but no success. He died in the middle of the road. They didn’t even manage to get to the hospital. My farther draw back without even going to the hospital. When he came back, I saw my grant farther lying behind the car with his face covered with a towel. I was only 10 and got so scared. I could not even go close to him. I cried that day the whole day. After that, things slightly changed for some reason, maybe my grant farther was the one holding the family together. My farther and my uncle started arguing on many things, especially with some shops we had our own and farms. They start discussion who owns what.
During that time, there were intense family disputes over inheritance following the passing of my grandparents. My grandfather had 9 siblings, and each of them resorted to illegal means to claim ownership of the family farm. I recall an incident involving my grandfather’s elderly brother who was on the verge of passing away. My father and his brother took him to the back to sign some papers, essentially transferring the remaining property to them upon his death. When his biological son, who also happened to be a teacher at my school, discovered this, he became furious and confronted my father and his brother in front of the school, leading to a physical fight. This escalated to the point where the police began searching for my father and his brother, forcing them into hiding for two days.
After a while, my farther decided to go to work on a cruise ship that was sailing around the world. I was left alone together with my mom and 6 years old young brother. I was doing all the man work at home. My mother was cloth designer and at the same time she was teaching the young women in the village on how to sew. It was very cool because I was also learning a lot from her. She was fixing all my cloth and was making my bedsheets with the colour I always wanted — blue. We had a lot of things in common and at the same time we were both very sensitive. She always supporting me whenever I felt bad about something. She was my hero.
