August 2023

Another dramatic month. Last month it was trial by sea, while this month it is ordeal on land. Fire seems to be Greece’s fate every summer, and this summer is no exception, as fires have been burning out of control, most notably on Rhodes, one of several popular islands, popular especially with British tourists. Fires on Rhodes were very recently fought for at least five days, but to not much avail: three hotels reportedly burned down, and 19000 people were evacuated in the largest such exercise in Greece’s history. Rhodes is the largest island in the Dodecanese group, and only about ten percent of its area was affected, but even so 50,000 olive trees have been destroyed and 2500 animals have been killed. As far as I know, however, there have been no human fatalities.

It was, sad to say, a different story on the island of Evia, where two fire-fighting pilots lost their lives. They had dumped their load of water and were turning their plane when one wing clipped a tree. They were unable to correct the error and so the plane crashed. My fire-fighter son, who has had his own quite narrow escapes on land, was very upset by this news and so were a great many other people.

The summer is always a nervy time for us, and A has already spent one night up a mountain near Corinth in the course of his work. In the meantime, the record-breaking heat ground on. 41-43 degrees seemed to be the pattern, and a high of 46 was reached in some areas. This trend went on for fifteen days, thus breaking the previous record, which had been set in 1987, also at the end of July. Then thermometers registered 40 and over for 12 consecutive days, while the top temperature was 47C. 1300 people died in Greece: I attended three village funerals and should have attended a fourth, for my poor neighbour had woken up one morning to find her husband dead on the bedroom floor.

My parents were visiting. Predictably, my mother coped well, but my father lay all day on the couch, wearing only his bathers and a wet face washer on his head. From time to time he moaned gently, and he never forgot what he called the Daddy of all heat waves. He is not around now to observe what southern Europe is going through at present. Extreme heat and tinder-dry vegetation become  very dangerous when winds start to rise, and this pattern has already prevailed in a number of places.

But now officials have declared the Greek heat wave over, as temperatures have returned to normal for this time of year: 31-35.

Domestic concerns took over for us for some days, as my third grandson had to go to Athens in order to undergo the ordeal of a bronchoscopy. He is only ten but has already spent quite large portions of his life in hospital: these ordeals he bears with great patience. Writer Paul Scott was of the opinion that a burden finds a heart most ready to bear it, and I can see the truth of this notion. I minded O’s sisters for two nights, which must have seemed like an eternity to them. When the doorbell rang, they raced to the door in great excitement, and it was truly touching to witness the reunion of the siblings. Now we have to wait three weeks for the results of the tests the doctors conducted. That’s a long time, so what I call the Noble Art of Distraction is the order of the day.

One distraction occurred yesterday, when my elder granddaughter had her seventh birthday. This event is hard to believe: it has come around quite quickly, and we grown-ups all tend to think that the children are growing up too fast. I suppose this is a habit children have. In any case, N seemed to have a good time: hours at the beach, followed by presents and cake. It’s pretty amazing to me that I can remember being seven, but I can. My life was very different, of course, and my grandchildren find it very hard to believe that I am pre-TV, an old fossil, if ever there was one.

We acquired TV eventually, and I remember the endings of the old cartoons: That’s all, folks! And it is (finally) all from me: I have been writing this diary column for about twelve years, and it is time to stop. Thank you for your company; I hope you’ve enjoyed the slices of Greek life. That life goes on: today I saw a village woman with a very impressive hen held upside down in one hand and a bucket of eggs in the other. Let us hope that some things never change.