Friends Through Time

The very first morning on which Kostas came to greet me at Amelia's Garden,  he arrived on his moped and, after initial greetings, he chortled 'follow me!'  Doing a roaring 45mph, pretty slick for a pedal powered Yamaha 50cc, we headed out of Kavos  towards Lefkimmi.  We ended up heading turning right before heading into Lefkimmi itself and we entered a huge car park with the sea and ships in front of us.

This was the port of Lefkimmi, where two large car and lorry ferries were loading up ready to head for Igoumenitsa on the Greek mainland .

Kostas rolled his bike right up to the seating area of an open cafe just opposite the ships and  strolled over to where I was just getting out of the car.

"Coffee Mr. Nigel?"

"That would be a lovely start to the day." I replied. "My shout!"

Now I don't think the word 'shout' was conveyed into Greek that well as Kostas ordered and paid for the coffees before I could get another word in.

"It is my pleasure my dear friend to get you coffee.  You are my guest!"

And that was sort of how the whole trip went when I was with Kostas. I had to insist to pay or make sure I ordered in advance if I met Kostas again at a cafe or restaurant and we did meet at the port several times over the few days I was there

So, from the start we got on so well, considering  before this first day on Corfu, I'd never met Kostas, although I'd had many telephone conversations with him about my uncle.  Indeed, to my shame I can admit that Kostas first made contact with me over 20 years before, but circumstances had meant I just couldn't make it to Corfu and we had lost contact. And worse still with that missed time,  I missed out on so much research and speaking to people who, unfortunately I could no longer speak to as they had passed away. 

All the same, here I now was  chatting with Kostas face to face.  What a gentleman.

Soon I had been introduced to his family and we ate with them at the restaurant down by the river which flows directly through the centre of Lefkimmi. I was treated like royalty by all and will forever be grateful to the people I had so far met on this beautiful island.

During the time I was over in Corfu Kostas and myself talked many times about my long quest to find more out about my Uncle Gerald and his untimely death in Greece in 1941. Kostas repeated many times that fate had brought us into this friendship and his favourite quote was 'We Are Friends Through Time.'

I shall never forget this.

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