When we hear of loving couples passing away close on each other, sometimes just a few days apart – following their soul mate on the journey to the other side- we are humbled and moved by the extent of their devotion.
The bond between Sotiris and Sophia Bouliopoulos is one such example. They passed away just over two weeks of each other and after 60 happy years together.
The darkness of dementia which had set upon Sophia in recent years was not enough to dull the shock and pain of losing her 92-year-old husband who had tenderly cared for her until his last breath on 14 December, last year.
The very next day, she suffered a severe stroke that would lead her to his side, 17 days later.
It was a devastating shock to the family, which was already struggling to come to terms with the loss of their father.
“When I used to hear of couples passing away together, I wasn’t really convinced,” their first-born, Vicky Bouliopoulos, told Neos Kosmos. “But then I saw it happen to my parents.”
“Our father had just died and then we got another shock when our mother suffered a sudden stroke the very next day. We even cancelled our dad’s funeral, as we were told that she didn’t have many days left,” Ms Bouliopoulos adds.
“She suffered from severe dementia for years and we thought that she probably hadn’t understood that our father had died,” she explains. “How wrong we were.”
And it felt like she was aware that the end was close.
“For years she hardly recognised us, and then, all of a sudden, in her last days, she was speaking to us, holding our hands and kissing us. As if she knew that death was close and she was saying goodbye,” Ms Bouliopoulos tells us with emotion.
In their last years the couple lived together in the same room at a home in Oakleigh, and they spent each day with each other. Sophia could not remember any more and she could hardly talk, and so he would look after her as much as he could. Though she faced so many challenges, she helped him too, taking him around the home in his wheelchair.
The couple was much loved in the Greek community of Melbourne. Many may still recall the first souvlaki prepared in town in the 1970s at “Sam’s Continental Foods”. The opening of their restaurant was featured in Neos Kosmos. And just three years ago, Sotiris Bouliopoulos was once again in our newspaper when he was honoured for his service to Greece as a former Evzone on Greek National Independence Day.
Sotiris Bouliopoulos was one of the old migrants. He left his post in the Presidential Guard for a new start in Australia in 1955. An orphan by then, there was nothing to keep him in Greece any longer.
Their first encounter was through a photograph, as was the custom in those days. Without any other relation, in Australia, Sophia bravely took the boat to the unknown, hoping that she would be lucky with the man chosen for her.
She was fortunate. She would end up loving the man in the photograph and would devote herself to creating a beautiful life with him. They raised a family of three children, in a warm and loving home, that was always open to friends and relatives.
“Our home would fill with guests, music and dancing,” Ms Bouliopoulos recalls. There were many relatives from Greece who stayed with them, who had left their homes as brides and grooms and would receive a little help from the loving couple.
Her mother always sang around the house. When she did her chores, her beautiful voice would echo her mood. Whether she was sad or happy, she was always singing, Ms Bouliopoulos says.
For a family dealing with a double loss, grieving the death of both parents, their grandmother and grandfather, there is perhaps some comfort in knowing that at least they are together.
