PHOTIS PAPAPHOTIS

I was born in the mountainous village of Akanthou. Our family was relatively large.  I am the second child of seven – five girls and two boys.  It was imperative for those years – years of great poverty and deprivation – for at least one member of the family, usually a son, to seek work abroad in order to help those who stayed behind. My mother already had a brother and a sister in London. The necessary ‘invitation to come’ (prosklisis) was sent to me and with Katerina, my younger sister, we came to London.

We took the ‘Corinthia’ from Limassol bound for Marseille. 
It cost me £12, we slept on the deck and the journey took twelve days.  Being November the sea was extremely rough – we went through hell.  From Marseille we took the train to Calais and then a ferry to Dover.  Another train took us to Victoria Station.  We were welcomed by my uncle and auntie who took us to their house in Holloway Road.  I was neither educated nor did I have a trade behind me.  Unable to find work for around two weeks, I accepted my auntie’s advice and started working with her at the café.  I was there for around four years.  I also opened other restaurants with partners in Richmond and at 30 Peckham Road.  This is where I have been ever since.

I was married on 25 February 1952.  Suzanna, my wife, was born in Cairo – her father came from Akanthou and her mother from the Greek mainland.  Her mother died when she was three years of age, so together with her two other sisters, they all moved to our village.  There at least, the girls would be with their grandparents. My mother considered that Suzanna was a nice young lady and would thus be a suitable wife for me.  We got married in Camden Town and the reception took place in a small restaurant in Goodge Street.  I have one daughter called Maria, who is married to Alan, an English gentleman who worked as a civil engineer.  They travelled the whole world.  His company took them everywhere:  the Shetland Islands (Scotland) where Gregoris my grandson was born; Cairo, where they stayed for eight years, Thailand and Malaysia then back to London.  I am extremely close with my daughter and we see each other very often.  My wife however is now in a nursing home.  She suffers from amnesia.  These last three years have been terrible for all of us.  She does not recognise anyone. 

Although I have been working all my life and have always tried to do the right things and to help others as much as I can, I was also involved with the Anglo-Akanthou Society for a long time and was its chairman for a few years.  In the early 1960s, the Greek Cypriot community in South London was working very hard to organise itself, to find a church.  I was asked by father Christopher (the late Bishop of Telmissou) to join the church committee.  I agreed to this request and for the last 40 years or so, I have the honour of being the chairman of St. Mary’s Cathedral in Camberwell, London, SE5.  We also purchased the whole church complex for a few thousand pounds.  Now it is worth three to four million pounds.  I believe that during my sixty years here, in this our ‘second home’, I have contributed “my bit” in keeping our community and therefore our religion and culture “alive and well”.

The feeling of return has remained with me. To go back to my beloved village, has always been a top priority.  However, since 1974 Akanthou has remained under foreign occupation. Things are very difficult.  Remember, I am now 81 years of age.