Thornbury local for the past 52 years, Irene Petrakis passed away peacefully a few days ago at age 102, leaving behind a legacy of love and care for her big Greek family.
Yiayia Irene migrated to Australia on 22 July 1972, alongside husband Ioannis and two of their five children, Vassiliki and Michalis.
Born on the island of Kimolos in 1922, the year marked by the Minor Asia Catastrophe, yiayia Irene (nee Ventouris) never had the opportunity to attend school and found work in Athens as an in-house maid at a young age.
As soon as she turned 18 she moved back to her birthplace to help her family.
It was on Kimolos that she met her husband and together with Ioannis they moved to Athens where they spent their first years as a family.
Speaking to Neos Kosmos, daughter Maria Kotsampa described her late mother as a “witty and social woman who enjoyed dancing and travels” and a strong matriarch who always offered assistance to raise the family’s young ones.
“She was fortunate enough to have spent many happy years alongside our father, leaving her with sweet memories.
“She always had a smile on her face conveying kindness, her arms always waiting for a hug.”
In the Greek community, Yiayia Irene is remembered as a woman of strong faith, an active parishioner of the St George Church in Thornbury, where her husband had served for several years as a committee member.
Her loved ones are aware of the struggles that galvanized her faith in the 40s and 50s, having outlived the Greco-Italian war, German occupation and Greece’s civil war, followed by years of poverty prior to migrating to Australia.
In her later years, she went through hard family times, losing her husband Ioannis in 2000, followed by the passing of her son Charalambos in 2010 and her grandson’s Theophanis in 2015.
She felt blessed however, for living a long life surrounded by her big family, daughter Maria told Neos Kosmos.
Irene Petrakis is survived by five children, 11 grandchildren, 22 great-grandchildren, one great-great granddaughter and three of her siblings.
