Vaso: My husband wanted to return for good. But I told him, ‘If you try to sell the house, I won’t come with you. If we keep the house and go for a year to test the waters, then I will come.’ And he agreed. ‘Ok’. I let my sister stay in the house with some lodgers while we went away for nine months. We also took the car with us. We brought it over on the ship because travelling around was difficult, especially with three children in tow. We had shipped it there earlier and we followed by air. We picked up the car in Piraeus. When we arrived, my siblings insisted that I stay with them. I didn’t like it one bit. My husband would say, ‘Whatever Vaso wants.’ I replied, ‘Let’s go because the children have to go to school.’ And so, we returned.

Vaso: I have no regrets about coming to Australia. We had difficult years. I couldn’t say everything was easy. It was a peaceful life. My husband was a very good man. I was perhaps more highly strung, admittedly. Indeed, the evening before his death, he had gathered the children around him and he said, ‘Do you see her?’ They replied, ‘Of course we see her. She’s our mother.’ He said, ‘You must love and respect her because she is a good person.’ And then our son interjected, ‘Dad! You used to yell at her often and call her a loudmouth as well as other things.’ He said, ‘Yes, we argued, but most of the time your mother was right!’