As examples of trust, here are three: the tank for the central heating oil is virtually empty and winter has a while to go yet but we have no money. To fill the tank will cost somewhere in the region of 750 euro. ‘Pay me when you can,’ says Haralambos. ‘It won’t be for a while,’ we say. ‘Then berazi’ says Harralambos, ‘it doesn’t matter, whenever.’ And it was a couple of months before we had the wherewithal to pay him. Medicine needed but again no money. ‘Pay when you can,’ says Eleni the pharmacist, ‘it’s an emergency.’ Somehow I can’t imagine that happening at the chemist in Hebden Bridge. Douglas is in England undergoing his treatment and here one of the cats is taken ill so has to go to Michael the vet. ‘Just pay for the medicine,’ Michael says, refusing all payment for the consultation. ‘You need the money for England.’ Once when the bank was on strike and we were complaining to him about not being able to get any money his answer was, ‘You live in a village. You have neighbours don’t you? You have a garden. You grow potatoes. What do you want money for?’ The fact that the only year I tried to grow potatoes it was an abject failure was beside the point. We knew what he meant. During yet another bank strike, and because of it, Judith and Dimitri who run the bookshop Papyrus in Kalives were unable to deposit takings so offered them as a loan to tide us over.
I can’t remember when last we bought olive oil. With the first pressings come the first gifts from our neighbours, beautiful green virgin oil. We are given wine, tsigouthia (raki), fruit, eggs, cheese, traditional Cretan cookies and goodness knows what else such as glika (sweets made from fruit) and moustalaveria, a delicacy made from pressed grapes. It evidently takes at least two days to make and is quite a complicated process but the end result is delicious.
This is not to say that generosity doesn’t exist elsewhere. I have already mentioned this in part but I think it’s worth my saying it again if only to reiterate our gratitude for generous friends who came to our assistance last year without being asked or us even thinking of asking in the first place. Despite the Greek National health Service which is excellent and the British one that took care of Douglas, falling ill can be very expensive and deplete the coffers pretty fast which is the reason for our gratitude. Douglas’s brother and sister in law, William and Susan also have to be thanked for taking such care of him and how lucky that they live in Torquay not that distant from the hospital in which he was being treated, and Tom Austin for providing a much needed taxi service if nothing else. Such good friends and much appreciated.