Our first stop……
Sadly, shortly before the closing date on our house in Austin, we lost my beloved Aunt Katina (Thea Tina), the original Opera Lady. She was 95. She was my mothers oldest sister of 4 – Katina, Elizabeth, Joanna and Theopitza comprise the four sisters of the Englezou family.
All born in the village of Villa Nova (now called Paradisi), Rhodes, Greece. Life was hard for the family back then, but Thea Tina was blessed with a beautiful voice, which helped the family survive. She sang for the Italians who occupied the island and in return, they gave the family food. By all accounts, she was the golden child. Below is her obituary:
Katina Theodore, age 95, passed away peacefully at home on March 23rd, 2022 while being showered with love, surrounded by her family.
Katina was born in Rhodes, Greece on November 4th, 1926 to Eirene Pichi and Stavros Englezos. During WW II, the island was under the hands of Italy’s Mussolini regime. Katina was a well-known singer in the village, singing classical pieces to Italian officers in exchange for food for her family. After the calamities of WW II and ensuing Greek Civil War, she went on to study music at the prestigious Athens’ Conservatoire in Greece. Katina then immigrated to the United States in 1948. There, she met the love of her life, Anastasios (Ernest) Thomas Theodore and they married September 3rd, 1950.
After just two months of marriage, Katina was hospitalized with tuberculosis and spent the next two years in the Missouri State Sanitarium. Her loving husband wrote her letters every day for two years, and their love continued to grow. She became a member of the St. Louis Opera Theatre and served as choir director for Assumption Greek Orthodox Church in St. Louis, Missouri for many years. Katina’s love of music and singing was inspirational to many.
Though she was never able to have children herself, Katina’s maternal instincts were generously shared and perfectly captured the hearts of so many nieces, nephews, cousins, and even strangers. Her beautiful smile and warm embrace remain unforgettable.
Katina was preceded in death by her beloved husband: Ernest Theodore, parents: Eirene Pichi & Stavros Englezos, sister: Elizabeth Tsimpris, and niece: Demetra Staats. She is survived by two sisters: Joanna Ancona & Theopi Knox, three nieces: Eirene Werts, Mariam McFalls, & Christina Daugirdas, three nephews: Philip Knox, Byron Knox, & Christopher Ancona, and many more grand and great nieces and nephews.
The funeral was a way for all the family to come together. Cassandra flew down from Knoxville. My nieces Stephanie and Alexa came from Clearwater, and I was able to visit with the Knox family who I haven’t seen in many years.
The plan was to stay in Wellington to attend her funeral and help until we were no longer needed. The help phase turned into a two month stay. We stayed in Thea Tina’s house, taking care of the place in her absence. There are still things to be done in the way of executing her will so I see returning in the near future.
During our two month stay, David and I settled into a routine of work/family. David made an office for himself on the dining room table:
I spent my days teaching virtually and spending time with my Thea Joanna. Thea Joanna is 90 years young and fully functional. We spent our days shopping and following up on doctor appointments that she had neglected during the last two years of watching over her sister. The sisters lived a little over a mile apart and called each other 4 or 5 times daily, in addition to seeing each other daily. I continued that tradition during our two month stay in addition to spending most of my free time at her house.
I learned many things while spending time with her. I already knew that in order to emigrate to the U.S., you had to be sponsored by somebody. My great Aunt Theopi (pictured above) sponsored Thea Tina, who arrived in the US via a cargo ship that landed in Galveston, TX. Great Aunt Theopi also sponsored my mother who came over months later. A few years later came Joanna, my grandparents, and finally Theopitza. What I didn’t know was that Joanna found a job just a few days after arriving. It was there that she met her future husband’s Aunt who invited her to a wedding. Her future husband (Uncle Joe) picked her up to bring her to the wedding. Uncle Joe’s family is Italian. Joanna could speak Italian from the many years of Italian rule over Rhodes. Their relationship budded and marriage was on the horizon. Here’s where it gets interesting. None of the men in our family would escort her down the aisle, and moreover, they tried to talk her out of marrying an Italian. To add more stress, she asked her sister Katina to be matron of honor and was turned down. At the last minute, my great uncle Manoli (married to Theopi’s sister Tsambika) walked her down the aisle. My two sisters, Demetra and Eirene were flower girls. The rest of the wedding party were Italians. I never realized until she told me the story that the Rhodian Greeks were seriously unhappy with Italian rule and totally against her marrying an Italian. In any case, their marriage lasted 54 years until the death of my favorite Uncle Joe in 2013.
During the Italian occupation of Rhodes, all the schooling was done in Italian. Greek was forbidden in the schools. Joanna attended school up to the 4th grade after which she started helping her father clean hotel rooms and other odd jobs. In essence, this was her education. That was another story she told me. I was hoping she would help me with my Greek School homework, but quickly realized that wasn’t possible.
She told me many more stories, but I found the wedding one the most interesting.
In addition to spending time with Thea Joanna, David and I spent time with my sister and her significant other, Pantelis. The four of us had movie nights together and more importantly, sang in the choir together at her church, St. Catherine Greek Orthodox Church in West Palm Beach where she is choir director.
We had a great time! Probably the most time I have spent with her in my adult life. We spent a lot of time together digitizing Thea Tina’s photos, recordings and important papers going back four generations. We got pretty good at reading documents written entirely in Greek. There was a really interesting property title document that was all in Italian – Thea Joanna helped us with that one :). Some shared ideas were spending our retirement years in Greece – both David and I loved bouncing ideas and stories with Eirene and Pantelis. Even though it was a stressful time (Eirene is executor of Thea Tina’s will), we still found time to laugh and enjoy each others company.