MRS. SOPHIA PANAGIOTAKIS (Nee Bakousi)
Sophia was born in 1913 in Vatziki. Her parents were Dimitri and Anastasia Bakousi. She was the eldest of four children with younger brothers George, Kostaki and Nicholas. Their maternal grandmother lived with them. The Bakousi family were farmers, growing mainly grapes (for wine and dries fruit), figs, and wheat. The family owned a goat and a sheep to provide for their needs. Their farm was a small one, providing enough to support the family, with some surplus for sale as additional income. The family’s income was augmented by an uncle who was working in America. He sent them cheques regularly. In 1922 they were in the process of buying up plots of land adjacent to their farm to provide a good future investment both for their uncle and themselves. Later, after the family had been dispossessed, they reflected on how much better their future would have been if they had kept the cheques from America, instead of using them to purchase property.
The family home was new. Their original home had been destroyed and much of the vineyard and farm had been damaged by the Turks after the first exodus in 1914. Their new home was large. It was a single story building, containing a very large sala (lounge), and 4 bedrooms. There were also additional storage rooms in which they stored their produce. Dimitri was a butcher by trade, and Anastasia had a wooden loom in the house, on which she wove the family’s woollen blankets and fabric from cotton, to make sheets, tablecloths and garments. From the village of Kato Panagia, people could see the harbour at Chios, and from Chios, they could see the towns in Asia Minor and the movement of people and traffic as they went about their business.
As news of the Turkish army’s advance spread, the whole village was in turmoil. People did not know what to do. Some wanted to flee. Others wanted to stay and protect their property. When they fled in 1914, they had come back to find their propertied looted, their homes and farms damaged. Greeks who had not left their properties in 1914, had been able to protect them to some extent and had not been killed. Many people were weary and disheartened. They had already been refugees once and had spent the last 5 years getting their farms, homes and lives back into order. The prospect of repeating the whole cycle of leaving, being refugees, returning and rebuilding weighed heavily on their minds. The decision to leave or risk staying tore families apart.
Anastasia made the decision for her family to leave. She had a vivid dream in which a woman dressed all in black told her to take her children and leave at once. She told her husband of this the next day, and added “I don’t trust the Turks. I’m leaving”. Dimitri resolved to remain and protect the family property. Sophia’s grandmother also stayed to pack up their possessions for transport to Chios.
Anastasia quickly gathered up her children Sophia, George and Kostaki, and hurried to ask a koumbaro of theirs if he could make room for them in his caique. They did not have time to pack anything. They left with the clothes they were wearing and whatever they could carry. Sophia remembers that the sea was very rough for their crossing and she was afraid that the boat would not make it safely to Chios.
The next day, Anastasia sent word to her husband to bring the family some bedding, blankets, clothes and food. When he arrived she begged him to stay for a while until they could see what the Turkish army was going to do. That very afternoon, they began hearing firing from guns and cannon. They could hear the great commotion that was taking place in their village. Dimitri had got out just in time.
Their grandmother was still in the village. She was eighty years old. She had been packing up the family’s belongings when the Turkish soldiers found her. One of them hit her over the head gashing her and causing her to bleed and fall over. She went to the local kafeneo (coffee house) for help, and somebody dressed her wound with a tobacco poultice (a common remedy). She then set off on foot to Tsesme where she was able to find a seat on a caique with another family. This caique was bound for Crete. From Crete she was able to find passage to Chios to finally rejoin her family.
Dimitri found an empty dilapidated old wood shack in the town of Nenita to house his family. Their possessions consisted of 2 blankets, 2 sheets and a few clothes. They had no furniture. Winter was approaching. Sophia remembers both the hunger and cold they experienced vividly. She remembers people coming down with severe illnesses and dying. She said all the old people died. Sophia remembers, with some sadness, that they would stand on the harbour and gaze longingly at their village across the water. They could see the double headed eagle which sat atop their church glittering in the sunlight and watch the movement and traffic.
Dimitri was able to earn a little money with his trade as a butcher. Anastasia took up weaving again. She did not have her own loom, but local villagers asked her to weave blankets, sheets and tablecloths for them on their looms. She did beautiful work and was paid both with money and with food. These two skills helped them support their family. Their third son, Nicholas, was born in Chios.
The family stayed in Chios for 3-4 years before being repatriated by the Greek Government to Killini. The families were allocated plots of uncultivated land to farm and support themselves. Sophia remembers that the land was full of trees, tree stumps and roots that had to be cleared. The community also suffered a severe outbreak of malaria at that time. This took a number of lives, especially older folk. The Bakousi family was neighbours with the Panagiotakis family in Killini. And at the age of 24 years, Sophia married Nicholas Panagiotakis.
With the outbreak of World War 2, Nicholas joined the Greek army. Their sons Parasko and James were born during the war and daughters Maria and Angela after the war. The family again suffered great hunger during the German occupation. Sophia remembers German soldiers walking into her home and taking all their food and provisions, leaving them with nothing.
After the war, Nicholas was sponsored to come to Australia, by his sister and brother-in-law, Afrodite and Nicholas Inglis. He arrived in Brisbane in 1948. He worked hard for 4 years to bring his wife and children here to join him. Sophia remembers how difficult it was for her rearing their four children alone in Greece after the war, until her husband was able to send for them. They came to Australia by ship and arrived in Brisbane in 1952.
Submitted by Mary-Ann Inglis, niece