Monday, July 9, 2012

Greece!

We had plans to visit Cambridge last weekend, and a friend from church had also invited us to Dublin for next weekend. All our plans, however, have been thrown into disarray with the untimely death of Demetrios' dearest friend since their boyhood. Our dear Kostas reposed in the Lord on Wednesday morning. Demetrios flew to Greece a few days before, in a frantic effort to save him, and I came Friday. Kostas had had a cardiac arrest a month ago. He was standing outside a pharmacy when his heart stopped, and inside the pharmacy was an emergency room doctor, who promptly resuscitated him, so we thought that rather a miracle and said to ourselves it obviously wasn't Kostas' time yet. But then he was subjected to the malpractice (and I mean that literally) of a Greek hospital, and that sealed his fate. It's hot here; 40 degrees, centigrade, which is 104, Fahrenheit. We are are used to English temps more like 15 - 16 centigrade, which is somewhere in the sixties, Fahrenheit. And that's the HIGH temp! Much colder at night. We've (obviously) been spending all our time with the newly-widowed Mena. Today we are going to catch up on things like unpacking. Returning to England before long, to finish out the "summer" there, such summer as they have there. Hard to believe, the last thing I did before leaving there was turn off the radiators! More another day; I don't feel much like writing today; we are still trying to process the absence of Kostas. So, so strange, that someone should so entirely disappear that in some moments, as Demetrios said, it seems he must never have been here at all. And yet he was... didn't Emily Dickinson write a poem that ends, "And oh, the difference to me!"? Kostas made a huge and wonderful difference.

8 comments:

elizabeth said...

Memory Eternal! I am so sorry for this loss; I remember you writing about this dear friend and can tell it is a great loss for both of you! May God remember him in His kingdom!! and comfort all those left behind...

Anam Cara said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anam Cara said...

I am so sorry for your loss!

I often have wondered how death can BE? I understand illness, a body not working properly, but death? How can someone be alive one minute and not alive the next? At least we know that the soul lives and will be reunited with a new body (that frail thing we have now doesn't last long!) Praise God for the Resurrection!

Memory eternal for Kostos. And peace and comfort for his loved ones in this difficult time.

Emily H. said...

I'm sorry to hear that. Memory Eternal Kostas!

DebD said...

I'm so sorry to read this. May his memory be eternal. Send Demetrios my love and condolences.

Sarah in Indiana said...

May his memory be eternal.

GretchenJoanna said...

Memory eternal! May his soul rest with the blessed, and you be reunited with your friend when our Lord returns.

Such a loss -- your life changed in a huge way. His widow must be very glad to have you there.

Anastasia Theodoridis said...

Thank you all. What a mystery is death, "the last enemy".