Chapter 2 - The First Years
Kyrenia, 1888-1902
No. 183[1]
Name: Costas Charalambou
Place of Birth: Karakoumi Village
Date of birth: 13.11.1888
Godmother’s Name: Polyxeni Gr. Demetriadou
Note: On 24.1.1888 Constantinos Gregoriou Demetriades succumbed to revolver wounds at age 19.
Karakoumi – Karmi
My date of birth is November 26, 1888, according to the new calendar. On the eighth day I am given the name Socrates in church. Hadjiglioris, the first notable of Kyrenia, agrees to have his eldest daughter Polyxeni baptize me but wants to name me Costantinos, after his son who died of revolver wounds earlier that year. So I am baptized Costas in memory of that young man. My father agrees, never opposing Hadjiglioris, who also baptized my brother Glioris; the first notable and my father are related by the Sacrament of Baptism. My father, Charalambos Kyriakou, hails from Karakoumi, a small village. Our one-room home is located approximately fifty fathoms from the sea. My mother hails from the village of Karmi, which is up on the mountain, almost directly beneath Ais Larkos. In Karmi they name their children after ancient Greek gods and men. My mother’s name was Athena. I remember her holding my hand; we were walking along a footpath. It was Easter, at dawn, and we were returning to the village from Kyrenia. I remember feeling sad because we had left Archangelos Church – the huge bonfire in its courtyard, the people holding lit candles, the young men ringing both the bell and the semantron and setting off firecrackers. Men firing shots into the air and the priests, in their glittery bedecked vestments, chanting “Christ has Risen!” It’s like I am there now – holding her hand and trying to keep up with her pace until, from one side of the village, my eldest sister appears, head uncovered, hair tousled... She is waving her hands and shouting things that I do not understand. In the commotion my hand slips out of my mother’s so I grab onto her skirt but it, too, slides out of my grip. She tumbles down into the stream next to the footpath... I am very frightened.
“Ma! Ma...”
Nothing! This is the only memory I have of my mother; I do not even remember her face.[2]
I remember the second one more vividly although her face has completely faded from my memory, too. I am in a nice konak[3] in the middle of a chiflik,[4] which has everything: flowers, trees, running waters... My second mother spoils me with affection and dresses me in a sailor’s uniform. Her name is Marianna. She is the mistress of the attorney Pericles, who keeps her in a house on his chiflik. And this is why I lose her, too. Elengou and Maria, my mother’s sisters in Karmi, are incensed that an unwed woman is raising me. They say it’s a sin that brings shame on their family.
