tuesday: another cross stitch, this time my greek grandmother.
while we are experiencing troubling times, i think about my grandmother, living in greece, her husband living in america, she has three daughters to take care of, it’s 1940, italy invades greece, soldiers come through and take all the livestock. it’s 1941, germany invades greece, they take over the house to use as a headquarters. a villager kills a german soldier. in retaliation many of the men of the village are rounded up, murdered and put in a mass grave. my mother, the oldest, is 14 years old. my grandmother only 34. people are starving in the cities. children are shipped by truck to their village, where the people have survived on what they grew on their farms, olives and citrus fruit, they trade oil for bread and vegetables. they feed the starving children.