Patmos, Theologia and Vagellis
For years I heard my aunt Calliope and my cousins Cookie and Joann talk about Theologia. (Pronounced THEE-Oh-loe-yee-uh) It wasn’t until this trip, however, that I learned how she became to be like a member of our family.
Listening to her talk, even though I only caught a few words I actually understood, because she only spoke Greek, made me feel connected to my Yiayia’s parents, Theologo and Iakinthi Gouras. (Pronounced THEE-oh-loe-go and Ee-ah-keen-thee)
Theologia came to work for Yiayia’s parents in the village of Hora as a servant around 1950, when she was eleven years old. By that time Yiayia and Papouli (Greek for grandma and granddaddy, my dad’s parents, Irene Gouras Dorizas and John Angelo Dorizas), been living in Jackson almost 15 years.
Theologia talked about how good my great-grandfather had been to her. I never met him, but as Cookie translated, she explained that a lot of people thought he was mean and stern, but he was always good and kind to her.
She shared how my grandmother’s youngest sister (Lividio), who still lived at home, would tell Theologia to do something, bossing her around, and how my great grandfather would tell her to leave her alone, that she was a child and needed to play and do school. And how he would buy her things, and her dad told him she wasn’t going to want to come home because he was better to her than he was.
Theologia was very excited to talk to me because of remembering my dad. She remembered when the family came from the United States to Patmos in 1951 and how Dad as a ten-year-old never stopped. He ran and ran, constantly getting into things. They went to the beach and a bunch of squid were in the water, and he kept running around catching them and he caught 35!!! What a calamari feast they enjoyed!
Theologia was very excited to talk to me because of remembering my dad. She remembered when the family came from the United States to Patmos in 1951 and how Dad as a ten-year-old never stopped. He ran and ran, constantly getting into things. They went to the beach and a bunch of squid were in the water, and he kept running around catching them and he caught 35!!! What a calamari feast they enjoyed!
I knew Dad would love to talk to her, and she would be more thrilled to talk to him than to me, so I called him and put it on speaker. Hearing them reminisce made everyone smile. When she reminded him of the squid story, he corrected her that it was 45!!!
Theologia cared for my great grandparents until they passed away, and then she worked for Thea Lividio for a few years before and even after she married Vagelli. Vagelli would encourage her to buy things for herself, but she never would. Instead, she saved her money to help him buy the building that would become Vagellis.
For 40+ years, Theologia cooked in the kitchen at Vagellis. They had two sons, Manoli and Theologo, but Theologo was killed, and about a year later Vagelli died too. Their surviving son Manoli took over the restaurant.
Manoli, Theologia, and Cookie
Cookie has made it her practice whenever she is in Greece to meet Theologia outside the bar, called Stoa, also owned by Manoli, every evening for about an hour, so Wally and I joined her.
When I ate at Vagellis in 1985 and 2011, Theologia was still cooking, and it was still a Greek tavern, specializing in Greek food. After his mom retired, Manoli brought in a chef and made it an upscale restaurant.
One night while we were there, they changed the entire outdoor setup to seat 200 people for a rehearsal dinner. Four photographers and a drone took what looked like hundreds of pictures before any other guests arrived.
