Hero is such an overvalued (or is it undervalued) word these days. But on Monday we were invited to eat with this family on the first day of Lent, officially known as Green or Clean Monday. No meat, fish or dairy permitted however octopus, squid, shrimps etc are. The old lady Kyria Alexandra was a patient of Costas and she adores him to bits. The house, outside of Nicosia belonged to one of her daughters who is married to a physician and they are friends of ours. Now the old lady and her husband are true heroes. They come from a tiny poor village high in the Troodos mountains. No money, no education. They had 7 or 8 children. These two worked and worked and worked to give each of those children university educations both at home and abroad. The old man worked his whole life in the mines. Kyria Alexandra did every job available to her, often several at once and including road digging. Every child is a professional, loving and well balanced and adore their parents. These are true Cypriots. The day was filled with laughter and love. No pretension, no airs, just simple good traditional food, everyone mucking in. The highlight for me was when we began toasting with a remarkably good village wine out of a plastic container. Eleftheria (meaning Freedom - the daughter in the picture with her mother) started to toast in the old style and it was carried on by others and the old man. The toaster charges his/her glass and makes up a poetic, often humerous ditty on the spot. And so it moved around the table.
I will post the rest of the pictures in the next post.
Hero is such an overvalued (or is it undervalued) word these days. But on Monday we were invited to eat with this family on the first day of Lent, officially known as Green or Clean Monday. No meat, fish or dairy permitted however octopus, squid, shrimps etc are. The old lady Kyria Alexandra was a patient of Costas and she adores him to bits. The house, outside of Nicosia belonged to one of her daughters who is married to a physician and they are friends of ours. Now the old lady and her husband are true heroes. They come from a tiny poor village high in the Troodos mountains. No money, no education. They had 7 or 8 children. These two worked and worked and worked to give each of those children university educations both at home and abroad. The old man worked his whole life in the mines. Kyria Alexandra did every job available to her, often several at once and including road digging. Every child is a professional, loving and well balanced and adore their parents. These are true Cypriots. The day was filled with laughter and love. No pretension, no airs, just simple good traditional food, everyone mucking in. The highlight for me was when we began toasting with a remarkably good village wine out of a plastic container. Eleftheria (meaning Freedom - the daughter in the picture with her mother) started to toast in the old style and it was carried on by others and the old man. The toaster charges his/her glass and makes up a poetic, often humerous ditty on the spot. And so it moved around the table.
I will post the rest of the pictures in the next post.
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