It was yet another week of sorrow for the Greek community in Melbourne, as we grieved the passing of more and more members of that first courageous generation of Greek migrants who arrived here and left their mark on our lives.

Their stories, struggles and achievements continue to inspire us. They are stories of courage and hope, some happy and some quite sad, like the life of Stella Tsirkas, who was found to have passed away in her home on Wednesday.

“Theia Stella was a very kind and fair lady, very considerate of others and very respectful. We were family friends,” Mr Theoklitos told Neos Kosmos. He also spoke of how Mrs Tsirkas became like a second mother to him, as they bonded even more after the passing of her 35-year-old daughter and his own mother a year later.

Mrs Tsirkas lived alone in a house she shared until recently with her beloved husband, Christos, before he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Deteriorating rapidly, he sadly had to move into a home for the constant care he needs.
Both well-known and admired in the community. Mr Tsirkas due to his activism, his dedication to serving the community, the labor movement, and mentoring generations of young Greek Australians, such as Kostas Karamarkos who first met them in 1984 when he was just 17, and maintained a strong friendship with them since.

Mrs Tsirkas, on the other hand, was known to the community through her art. She received an extensive education in music, but it was to painting she turned to in order to express herself.
Though self-taught, her art stands out, simple, naïve, but heavy with meaning and layers of symbolism, reflecting her ingenuity and deep perception.

For the last 16 years, it was just the two of them, sharing the same unbearable grief of losing their only child. Their daughter Labrini died aged 35, after battling with cancer for years.

The loss of her daughter was too much for Mrs Tsirkas to bear. Soon after, she herself fell ill and needed a kidney transplant, which meant that her life became even harder and her independence was compromised to a degree.

Their tragic loss, actually strengthened the couple’s bond to each other.

Following the death of Lambrini, Mr Theoklitos, who was to lose his mother soon after, would often see Mrs Tsirkas and they would share their grief, and keep alive the memory of their loved ones.

“She was artistic, creative. She loved classical music, and loved playing the harp,” Theo tells us. “She also loved to do needlework, and to tend to her garden.”

“We used to sit under her pomegranate tree with a coffee and talk about life, art, philosophy, and the meanings behind the old Greek sayings. She was absolutely like a mother figure to me. I would visit her with my two sons, every second Sunday, and they would make her coffee and look after her dog, Chloe.”

The last time the three of them visited her was nearly two weeks ago, and she said how she felt that it was like she had three children.

New life

Stella Tsirkas was born and raised in the western suburbs of Athens in 1947. From a young age she showed talent in music and art, and continued her education in music in the University of Athens, before she decided to leave Greece, and everyone she knew, for Australia.

“I think she just wanted a new life. She was progressive. Her background was from Athens but she also had an Austrian grandmother,” Mr Theoklitos explained.
She was only 20 years old, and completely alone when she arrived in Sydney where she pursued her studies in classical singing, Kostas Karamarkos recalls, and that is where she met Christos Tsirkas.

They married and moved to Melbourne in the 1970s where they made their home in the busy streets of the “Greek suburb” of Richmond.
“Stella was incredibly sensitive, and had amazing insight. She could see things from different perspectives, which you can clearly detect in her paintings which escape the rationality of reality,” Mr Karamarkos continued.

He added that she had plans to do another exhibition in Melbourne and in Sydney. But this unfortunately was not meant to be. Mr Karamarkos is hopeful that with a group of friends they could gather her paintings and organise an exhibition, even posthumously, to honour her.

She had a hard life, Mr Karamarkos said. Another huge blow was when Christos Tsirkas was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, in 2019.

“He deteriorated rapidly. He was the only kin she had. Whenever she was not in pain, as she had severe mobility issues, I would take her to visit him. It was incredibly moving to watch them together, how much she cared for him.”

“That’s life. You don’t know what it has in store for you,” he said adding that it was sad to see that Christos Tsirkas did not seem to understand quite fully, when he told him, that his beloved wife had passed on.