Back to Skiathos

Back to Skiathos

The other day Geof and Lida parked their pickup truck under a pine tree at the back of Platanias Valley. From there we ambled and gabbed along a trickling stream all the way to the beach taverna at Ligaries where a smiling young goddess named Sophia served us tsiporos and fish and salad as we whiled away the afternoon reminiscing about the old days and about Lori. On the way back to the truck we encountered Yorgos and his 300-strong herd of goats so stepped off the path to let them pass. Several of them nosed up and implored us with their slitty goatish eyes to give them forehead scratches between their sweeping horns. Ma-a-a-a-ahhh.

In the winter of 1981 Geof and Lida hiked us up to a one-room hillside kalivi to introduce us to Yorgos’ mother, Zoi. Round as a watermelon she was, under layers of skirts and sweaters, and possessed of the happiest smile of my lifetime. In that hearth-warmed kalivi, Zoi and her husband raised six children, Yorgos the eldest among them. She served us tumblers of wine they had pressed from their vines and showed Lori how to knit a sweater of untreated wool, rich with lanolin, and tight enough to serve as a rain top. I still wear the sweater that Lori then knitted for me and remember when I do how soft the lanolin made her hands.

We made the decision to come here as the strokes of midnight turned 1980 to 1981, and everyone thought we were nuts. Interrupt your careers? Haul Katie halfway across the planet? Why? Well . . . why not? We stepped off the ferry on September 1, 1981. Kate turned two on September 21. In those early days everyone we encountered on Skiathos said the same thing: You have to meet Geof and Lida. Their daughter Zoi is the same age as Kate. They live out in Zorbathes Valley but are in England just now getting married. They will be back soon.

One day we trudged into town for errands — butcher, vegetable guy, baker, grocer, post office for mail from home, finally to Laiki’s taverna on the paralia. As we settled in over letters and ouzo a smiling guy strolled up with a head of hair that looked like an explosion in a woolen mill.

“You two must be the Yanks everyone is telling us we have to meet.”

“And you must be Geof.”

Soon enough we met Lida as well, and commenced the friendship of a lifetime. For the next eight months we spent our days and nights with them, ate with them, hiked with them, played cards and charades with them, shared our stories with them. We spent our last day here with them on the beach at Vassilia and returned to them three years later with infant Tucker in arms. The first return trip of many. And they have come our way, twice, to California. The first time we wowed them with Yosemite and Big Sur. The second time, last January, they buoyed and nourished us through the last week of Lori’s life.

Before she died, Lori asked me to scatter her ashes in three places — our own olive orchard in Sonoma, Pocono Lake in Pennsylvania, and Skiathos. Soon Kate and Tucker will join me here, with Owen and Jack and Lise. Together with Lida and Geof we will choose the right spot and celebrate Lori in this little corner of Paradise where she and I turned a corner in our lives and found a second home.

Jack will make the third generation of this family to come to Skiathos so we will rent a caique to chug-chug around island with him and stop along the way at favorite beaches, and we will hoist him on our backs for hikes along ancient trails with bubbling springs and through groves of massive gnarled olive trees and past herds of goats with their clanking bells as we once did with Kate and Tucker, and we will dunk him in the Aegean, and we will introduce him to feta cheese and Kalamata olives. He will remember none of it, but he will be back, and in time he will remember.

Skiathos.

Skiathos

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Lida and Geof

 

22 thoughts on “Back to Skiathos”

  1. Bill, what a wonderful story of your lives. We are so glad you will get to celebrate Lori in a place she loved so much and a place that is such a part of your family. Continued celebrations and her constant love in your heart. xoxo, Julie >

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  3. Thank you for sharing such a touching story where your lives have intertwined creating a lovely tapestry of relationships. Your writing has invited us into a place where the ground is truly holy. Keep writing -Sandy

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  7. and you wrote “The Redwood League” there during that first year. Ann and I hold you and your family, Bill, with great tenderness as you prepare to share one of life’s most sacred, most memorable rites of passage.

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  8. What a wonderful place for you leave some of Lori’s ashes. I’m jealous of you being there. My dad was born somewhere near or in Kalamata. He died in San Francisco in 1940 when I was eleven and had just arrived in El Salvador three months before. I never learned Greek but I still remember one of Dad’s favorite lunches–sour dough bread with a slab of feta cheese on it, drenched in olive oil. Salty sardines and olives on the side. He used to take me to visit his friends in North Beach and we would have lunch there sitting on small barrels in the back of the store. My memoir will be called “Coffee beans and Olives.” Love, Helen

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  9. Dear Bill,
    Thank you for sharing such a sacred place and so many cherished memories.
    We can visualize you, Lori and baby Kate immersed in village life with dear friends Lida & Geof on this beautiful island. You returned to this paradise with Tucker — and now…the legacy will continue with Jack.
    Golden shining moments. The gorgeous tapestry of life.
    Our hearts, thoughts & prayers are with you as you all gather to find that special spot for Lori.
    May she forever rest in peace….in Sonoma, in Pocono Lake and in Paradise. And in our hearts.
    We send you our love,
    Susan & Peter

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  10. Me, too, Bill, crying as I read this. Thank you for your beautiful sharing of this very special place and its people. So glad you can be there now for another round, another generation. Much love from us.

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  12. Thank you Bill to share with us. This week I found a photo of Lori in Skiathos with Kate an François.
    Enjoy your Family in this wonderfull place . Nice to have also your friends with you.
    Bises
    Colette & Andi

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  13. Hi Bill, So happy you, the kids, and Lori are back home on Skiathos. I still see that photo in my mind of you and Lori with little Kate peeking out from inside the front of your jacket. Glad you are keeping with the Billori tradition of traveling, meeting new friends and seeing old ones. Ron and I are on the road ourselves, up in Cape Breton in Nova Scotia. Much love and hugs to you and the family, Renee

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  14. How beautiful, Bill!! I am sure Lori will be with
    you as you scatter her remains over Skiathos.
    And it’s so wonderful that your family & dear friends
    can be there with you!! God bless the Hutchinson family.

    All my best to you.
    Debora Dickinson

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  17. What a beautiful way to keep Lori’s spirit alive for you, Kate, Tucker, Jack, all of us, and all your generations to come. It’s great seeing and hearing about the life you and yours so richly deserve. Best to all of you.

    Isaac and Linda

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  22. Your writing gets me every time. What a special time in Greece surrounded with loved ones…including Lori. Hope to see you in church again some time soon, we are so hit and miss with family outings and fall festivities this time of the year. My best, Amy

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