Remembering Greece 1975-1990
Ann Dragoumis: Life, Works and Laughs
My sister Ann Dragoumis was a woman with many skills, a kind heart, a lot of quiet determination, higher common sense, and a lively sense of humour. She married a charming, good-looking Greek from a patrician family, and emigrated with him to Greece just a few years before the Colonels’ Junta took over. She ended up living on a small, beautiful, remote headland in the Peloponnese, where, against all odds, she managed to construct a liveable dwelling and build a family on a precarious shoestring budget. Life was arduous, interesting and inventive, not always sunny, but often funny.
At the same time she was writing and writing: about her experiences of backwoods Greece, eccentric neighbours, wild weather, struggles with plumbing, her headstrong and creative little son, and her husband, who turned out to be profoundly impractical, accident-prone, given to cowboy hats and alcohol. It’s an inspiring story, and I want her to be remembered.
She died quite young, just as she was beginning to get her stories published. That was more than 30 years ago, and I have only just managed to gather and work on all the papers and manuscripts she left behind. I’ve put a few of her best writings on this website, together with a short biography of her harrowing but entertaining life. Hope you enjoy them!