By Emmanuel Lagouvardos of Moscow
In 1947 I was seven years old and living with my parents in Tirnavos. Christmas eve we went to my grandmothers from Tirnavos to her village in Grevena Town, where we waited for my grandfather. In Elassona we visited my aunt, to stay a few hours until the military vehicle came out that was a minesweeper, because the road had mines.
Playing with my cousin of the same age at my aunt's house, the warmer stumbled and charcoal fell onto the carpet. Saddened by the mess I escaped, disappearing from my aunt's house and I went to the river Titarisiou that crosses Elassona. I returned home when it started getting dark. The military vehicle was gone and we stayed the night at my aunt's house.
At night my grandmother saw in her sleep her patron St. Constantine, who told her not to go to Deskati but to return to Tirnavos because her daughter's life was in danger.
In the morning we returned to Tirnavos where my mother was in danger of dying from bleeding (she was giving birth to my sister Vasiliki) and doctors were not found anywhere. This was the state of guerrilla warfare. My father was looking to find a doctor in Larissa. Finally we found a military doctor who was like a guardian angel and stayed several days with us to be constantly on the side of my mother, until he escaped the danger.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos
