Cyprus - 1989
Cyprus was the last leg of our European honeymoon. We had been to France, Spain and Italy on our 6 week tour, 2 of which where now to be spent in Cyprus before returning home to build our lives, our family, our careers. It had been a dozen years since I had been to the ancestral home, this once birth place of gods. I arrived with my young bride this time. Karol had been a visitor here on her own with 2 of our friends about 3 years previously. She had actually met my family and stayed with them at the time. Returning now as my wife put her in a new light for my relatives...
After arriving in Cyprus and spending a few days in the sea side city of Limassol with my aunty Nefeli and family, Karol and I were keen to go up to the mountain village and spend some time with my grandparents and soak up the atmosphere of another world. My grandfather of course put on a 'souvla' or bar-b-cue of tasty goat on a large skewers. The village house hadn't changed at all except now the grape vine around it was thick and strong and heavy with it's large globes, bunches that looked ready to fall into your mouth.
Later that night my grandfather and I sat together under it and reminisced. He recalled how as a child I cut the vine at it's base because I had decided it interfered with the small chicks that were under my care around the side of the house. I wanted to give them more room to run around in. He then started to quiz me about me new wife. He wandered why I had not married a Cypriot girl. I started to tell him about Karol. I remember him growing silent after I told him that her mother had died when she was around 3 years old. I saw him turn away from me and look up through the grape vine to the night sky. The moon was a large yellow ball through the mosaic of dark leaves. I saw a tear fall from his one good eye as he told me about his own childhood, loosing his mother at a young age as well. They were tough times and the wife his father then took, and proceeded to have many children with, treated him and his 2 siblings as outsiders. They were the last to be fed or loved. Karol became an even more special member of the family after that night.
Later that night my grandfather and I sat together under it and reminisced. He recalled how as a child I cut the vine at it's base because I had decided it interfered with the small chicks that were under my care around the side of the house. I wanted to give them more room to run around in. He then started to quiz me about me new wife. He wandered why I had not married a Cypriot girl. I started to tell him about Karol. I remember him growing silent after I told him that her mother had died when she was around 3 years old. I saw him turn away from me and look up through the grape vine to the night sky. The moon was a large yellow ball through the mosaic of dark leaves. I saw a tear fall from his one good eye as he told me about his own childhood, loosing his mother at a young age as well. They were tough times and the wife his father then took, and proceeded to have many children with, treated him and his 2 siblings as outsiders. They were the last to be fed or loved. Karol became an even more special member of the family after that night.
Alky, Andrew, Karol, Papou Thoedosi and Alexia
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