40 days without Mr. Dimitri Koutsomitis

(photo received from his daughter Keri)

The forty days of the soul begin on the morning after death. That first night, before its forty days begin, the soul lies still against sweated-on pillows and watches the living fold the hands and close the eyes, choke the room with smoke and silence to keep the new soul from the doors and the windows and the cracks in the floor so that it does not run out of the house like a river.

The living know that, at daybreak, the soul will leave them and make its way to the places of its past — the schools and dormitories of its youth, army barracks and tenements, houses razed to the ground and rebuilt, places that recall love and guilt, difficulties and unbridled happiness, optimism and ecstasy, memories of grace meaningless to anyone else — and sometimes this journey will carry it so far for so long that it will forget to come back.

For this reason, the living bring their own rituals to a standstill: to welcome the newly loosed spirit, the living will not clean, will not wash or tidy, will not remove the soul’s belongings for forty days, hoping that sentiment and longing will bring it home again, encourage it to return with a message, with a sign, or with forgiveness.
(The tiger’s wife by Tea Obreht)

(photo received from his daughter Keri)

Tomorrow, in the saint Michaels church the 40 days passing away of Mr. Dimitri Koutsomitis will be remembered. In Greece it is a custom to have a church ceremony. It is important to recognize this time.
Mr. Dimitri was born in 1919, right after the first world. He studied for engineer and simultaneously worked in an aircraft factory but when the Germans confiscated the factory during World war two mr. Dimitri did not want to help the German invaders so he left. He returned to Skopelos with great difficulty.

He joined the resistance and fought in the Pillion area and elsewhere. He was imprisoned in the Greek civil war on Makronisos, an island that was used as a military prison.

After the Greek civil mr. Dimitri found work on a boat and finally ended up in Australia. He married and has two children. In 1988 he returned to Skopelos. He would visit the municipal cafe/kafenion every day and talk about the news, politics etc. He was always well dressed. We will remember him as a kind person who was well informed about what was going on in the world. A person who suffered during his life but never became bitter about it. Always polite, always thankful for what he had. May he rest in peace.