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I had a good time in my marriage. Maybe because I was a tough character and he would not dare say anything. He knew that if Eugenia said something, that was it.
Leo and I were a very loving couple, but not like my mother and father. He told me some things for fun, but I was unyielding and very stubborn. Often I regretted it, but I never gave in. I wouldn’t give in, ever.
Leo said to me one day, ‘I’ve had enough, I want to have fun, get away, I can no longer work.’ So I told him, ‘Let us split the shop. I will take the small wares, which I had introduced in the business during the occupation, and you take the cosmetics. Which do you prefer?’ Finally he sold me the cosmetics for 2 percent less than we sold them. I paid every penny, slowly because the truth is that I didn’t have all the money.
I gave him the money when he stayed here in the old people’s home and had three ladies look after him. No one has three ladies looking after him! One squeezed him oranges, the other came in later to bring him his newspaper to read – even though they give us a newspaper here he wanted his ‘Makedonia’ to be bought – and the third came in the afternoon. She was married and had a child and when the weather was nice she took him for walks and also to ‘Jani,’ the patisserie. There, Leo would eat an ice-cream cone. She was worth it because she took him out for walks and took him around.
What can I tell you, every time I saw dust in his room he would say to me, ‘Eh what is there to say, we talk so that the time passes.’ Otherwise he would ask Eugenia to sew his buttons.
As I told you, I was very stubborn. I did everything, squeezed his grapefruit, prepared his salad, I always prepared food to have in the refrigerator so he could eat at lunchtime, even though he usually ate out with Kleanthis Anthomelidis at the Athenaikon restaurant, opposite the Continental hotel, where Henri and Marie lived.
I remember one morning when I didn’t leave early. While I was making his bed, I must have said something and he replied: ‘Women’s work is not such a big deal.’ If he had said that only about me, maybe I wouldn’t have reacted. But since he underestimated all women, I said to him, ‘Oh is that what you think?’ And I remember it as if it was yesterday, I had my back turned to him, grabbed the bedspread and threw them down, saying, ‘Go ahead then, do it yourself.’ And he replied, ‘Oh women, they just don’t get it when you are teasing them…’
At the time we didn’t have a help. A few days went by, and I didn’t squeeze grapefruits, nor did I do anything else. I ate by myself at the shop and didn’t pay any attention to him. ‘Well, won’t you come home for a while, as before?’ he asked. ‘No,’ I said. ‘There are feathers under the beds, and soon there will be cockroaches.’ ‘I’m an animal lover,’ I answered.
He started asking his friends for a help. Finally he found one that had a sister in Kilkis. He paid her to come once a week from Kilkis with her daughter, she did the housework and left. At night when I returned at home we only said good evening and goodnight. We loved each other, but there is a limit. He came to the shop, left the merchandise and went. This went on for a while.
Of course these women that cleaned the house did nothing: the bathrooms were filthy, the balcony full of dust, and even the neighbors commented. ‘So,’ I told Leo, ‘What do these women do?’ After this lady from Kilkis, the barber’s wife came to clean for him while she left their two kids with the barber. She left too.
So, he didn’t know what to do and went to the old people’s home. My husband stayed there for three years. I stayed outside, because I didn’t want to leave the shop. I kept it until 1994 when a car hit me and I broke both my legs. I wouldn’t have left it otherwise. We made face creams. The same cream with four different names. The same thing is done with medicine. After the car hit me and broke my legs, I closed my little shop and didn’t open it again.
Leo and I were a very loving couple, but not like my mother and father. He told me some things for fun, but I was unyielding and very stubborn. Often I regretted it, but I never gave in. I wouldn’t give in, ever.
Leo said to me one day, ‘I’ve had enough, I want to have fun, get away, I can no longer work.’ So I told him, ‘Let us split the shop. I will take the small wares, which I had introduced in the business during the occupation, and you take the cosmetics. Which do you prefer?’ Finally he sold me the cosmetics for 2 percent less than we sold them. I paid every penny, slowly because the truth is that I didn’t have all the money.
I gave him the money when he stayed here in the old people’s home and had three ladies look after him. No one has three ladies looking after him! One squeezed him oranges, the other came in later to bring him his newspaper to read – even though they give us a newspaper here he wanted his ‘Makedonia’ to be bought – and the third came in the afternoon. She was married and had a child and when the weather was nice she took him for walks and also to ‘Jani,’ the patisserie. There, Leo would eat an ice-cream cone. She was worth it because she took him out for walks and took him around.
What can I tell you, every time I saw dust in his room he would say to me, ‘Eh what is there to say, we talk so that the time passes.’ Otherwise he would ask Eugenia to sew his buttons.
As I told you, I was very stubborn. I did everything, squeezed his grapefruit, prepared his salad, I always prepared food to have in the refrigerator so he could eat at lunchtime, even though he usually ate out with Kleanthis Anthomelidis at the Athenaikon restaurant, opposite the Continental hotel, where Henri and Marie lived.
I remember one morning when I didn’t leave early. While I was making his bed, I must have said something and he replied: ‘Women’s work is not such a big deal.’ If he had said that only about me, maybe I wouldn’t have reacted. But since he underestimated all women, I said to him, ‘Oh is that what you think?’ And I remember it as if it was yesterday, I had my back turned to him, grabbed the bedspread and threw them down, saying, ‘Go ahead then, do it yourself.’ And he replied, ‘Oh women, they just don’t get it when you are teasing them…’
At the time we didn’t have a help. A few days went by, and I didn’t squeeze grapefruits, nor did I do anything else. I ate by myself at the shop and didn’t pay any attention to him. ‘Well, won’t you come home for a while, as before?’ he asked. ‘No,’ I said. ‘There are feathers under the beds, and soon there will be cockroaches.’ ‘I’m an animal lover,’ I answered.
He started asking his friends for a help. Finally he found one that had a sister in Kilkis. He paid her to come once a week from Kilkis with her daughter, she did the housework and left. At night when I returned at home we only said good evening and goodnight. We loved each other, but there is a limit. He came to the shop, left the merchandise and went. This went on for a while.
Of course these women that cleaned the house did nothing: the bathrooms were filthy, the balcony full of dust, and even the neighbors commented. ‘So,’ I told Leo, ‘What do these women do?’ After this lady from Kilkis, the barber’s wife came to clean for him while she left their two kids with the barber. She left too.
So, he didn’t know what to do and went to the old people’s home. My husband stayed there for three years. I stayed outside, because I didn’t want to leave the shop. I kept it until 1994 when a car hit me and I broke both my legs. I wouldn’t have left it otherwise. We made face creams. The same cream with four different names. The same thing is done with medicine. After the car hit me and broke my legs, I closed my little shop and didn’t open it again.
Period
Interview
Eugenia Abravenel