The Letter to Italy
Story told by Mangafoula Konsolas, the widow of Giannis Konsolas
The Italians appointed a man called Avaliano as a teacher in Olympos. Giannis and his brother Nikias befriended this man who was a good, educated, and gentle man. He was later sent to Tristomo as an officer, a lieutenant. Italy had signed an armistice and the Italians wandered around aimlessly without orders. One evening, Avaliano came to our house and knocked on the door. “Who is it? What do you want?” “I am Avaliano and I am looking for Nikias.” Nikias was upstairs, he was engaged at the time. The Italian goes up and meets Nikias. In the morning, we asked what did the Italian want the evening before. Nikias told us that he had given him a letter and begged him to find a way to post it to his relatives in Italy when he left. The two Konsolas brothers decided to open the letter. It was of course in Italian and said “Today I depart from Karpathos and I don’t know if I will be able to come back alive to see you dear mother, father, brother, sister. I know that my sister is married. If I am killed, I beg her if she has a male child she gives him my name.” We sent the letter to his sister and we did not know what happened to Avaliano or the letter.
Years later Avaliano came back to Olympos and asked for Nikias. After he was told that Nikias had died he cried uncontrollably. He went to shop in our house and looked around all the places he knew from his time there in the war. In Rhodes he met Nikias’ son, Manolis, and told him that the letter had reached its destination safely.
The Money to Italy
Story told by Mangafoula Konsolas, the widow of Giannis Konsolas
Another Italian, who did his service in Olympos, we knew because he bought things from our shop. He was Brigadier Piras, I think. He also served in Mesochori and spoke Greek. When he was leaving, he gave to Giannis Konsolas 10,000 lira and said to him “Because I do not know what will happen to me but I know you are an honest man, I want this money sent to my mother. I trust you completely.” He told us also that he had left his trunk with another person, full of clothes and other expensive things that he had bought in Rhodes. When he had gone the next day, other people opened the trunk and took whatever they wanted, they didn’t leave a single thing. Giannis Konsolas sent the money to the address he had been given for the mother and after the war a letter came back from the Italian himself giving many thanks as the money had reached his mother just when she needed it. He arrived back in Italy and saw that the money had arrived and asked what happened to everything else and Giannis could only write back and tell him the truth.