Artemis Helen (Pagonis) Pavellas, 1918 - 2008)
About Our Mother’s Life as it Approaches its End (At Least on This Earth)
Diane & Ron Pavellas (Siblings)
(Written around three years ago when Diane and I thought mom was near death)
We add the parenthetical phrase to the title of this biographical sketch because Mom seems to know there is an afterlife. Within the last year she has said she wants to be with her family and friends “on the other side.”
Dad died in year 2000. They had been married 65 years. Mom mourned, but not terribly. It gave her a bit of freedom she had yearned for, we believe.
Mom has lived with Diane since then, and Diane has treated her like a queen: facials, nails and hair and clothes. Mom has loved it.
After a year of on-and-off stays at various levels of institutional care, mom recently has suffered a stroke, larger than the small ones that had slightly crippled her dominant left hand around two years ago. We don’t know how long her body will function, but her cognitive functions continue to diminish, acutely now with the latest stroke. She hasn’t been able to walk for around six months—her brain and legs don’t connect well enough.
Artemis Helen Pagonis began in 1918 as the youngest of four children of a poor Greek immigrant family in San Francisco: George Pagonis and Helen, née Diakakis.
George was then a skilled confectioner, but a failed businessman working for other Greeks in San Francisco restaurants. He might have had 6 or 8 years of formal schooling. George and Helen met in San Francisco, and both came from Astros, on the Peloponnesus. We know nothing of their antecedents. When Ron was more avidly interested in genealogy around 20 years ago, he asked Uncle Harry, the oldest of the siblings, about his parents’ families. His only response was, “let sleeping dogs lie.”
Three years after mom was born, another girl was born and Helen died from complications accompanying the birth. Florence was the baby’s name; the children were told she was adopted by the doctor who delivered her, but we believe this to be a tall tale for the sake of the other children’s sensibilities. More likely, she was taken to an orphanage. The girls lived alone for some time and survived on 5 cents a day while her father and Harry, aged nine or ten years, went out to make money. Harry sold papers on a corner and waited up all night until George decided to return home from the card rooms where he spent his off-work hours. He hardly slept. (He ultimately contracted tuberculosis, for which he was treated, on and off, over the years until his death from pneumonia around age 65). The girls were alone and Bea who was 7 or 8 was the mother to Artemis 3 and Angeline 4-1/2. Bea was made responsible for the household. She was in charge of the feeding and caring of these two toddlers.
They were all taken away by the State because the neighbors complained there was no one home for these children. They were placed in a “horrible” Stockton orphanage, 60 miles from San Francisco. The matrons were stern and unloving. They carried sticks for discipline purposes. The girls were forced to eat and when they didn't, they were beaten. Angie wet the bed so they put her in the basement with rats to convince her to stop. This made it worse. She claimed to have suffered permanent kidney damage from this, later in life after she complete nurse training. Whenever someone came to look at one or another child for foster care they would act up as they didn't want to be separated. They were all finally placed with Mrs. Vroman in Portland, Oregon, and were happy. Mrs. Vroman saw that Bea had musical talent and gave her piano lessons. The little girls were treated lovingly and got enough to eat.
Mom and Dad first met when she was a baby. Dad's father, Alexander K. Pavellas, was godfather to many of the children born to Greek immigrants in and around San Francisco because of his being highly educated, influential and having been the Greek Consul General of San Francisco. Mom was about 4, and dad 10. We were told that when dad and his father visited mom's father, George Pagonis, mom sat on dad's lap. They met again later when dad came to George’s home to sell newspaper subscriptions. The three sisters and dad went to the movies; he and Mom talked all the way through the movie and became engaged. It was expected he would end up with Bea, the oldest and “prettiest,” by American standards. But mom fell head over heels, and so did he. He found her to be real, without guile and free spirited—plus, Diane believes, very sexy. He was immediately smitten. He was in need of love and companionship; he had just lost his mother, father and uncle and was burdened with the care of his aunt Genevieve and her son, dad’s cousin Nestor.
This was 1935, in the depth of the Great Depression. Dad was trying to hang on the family business, a Greek-American newspaper, The Prometheus, he had inherited from his father and his father’s business partner (Aunt Genevieve’s husband—George D. Pappageorge—and leader of the family) all died within that year. Dad had to drop of his senior year at Cal.
He was on his way to Canada to sell more subscriptions and had 25 cents on him. Mom told him he couldn't go without her because he wouldn't come back, so she went with him to Canada with 25 cents and a Model T Ford. At the border, the Canadian officials were not going to let them in as you had to have a particular amount of money to enter, but they told the Border patrol they were getting married in Canada so they let them in. Dad left his watch as security. We don't know where they got married. Dad collected on a sufficient number of subscriptions to The Prometheus to get home again.
They all moved in together, Dad, Mom, Genevieve and Nestor. Nestor was 11. We don't know where they lived.
Ron's first memories are at age 4-5 living with dad, mom, Harry, Bea, Angie and grandpa in the upper flat on 433 Arguello Blvd., between Geary and Clement. I think they lived previously on Cherry Street when I was first born, as they mentioned it often. When I was around 2 the three of us lived a year in Brisbane and I had a dog, Brownie, and had whooping cough for that year.
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Diane's memories
My first memories were of Brooklyn, I don’t know how we got there but I thought it was a train.
I was 3-1/2, so you must have been 9. I remember how dad suffered under his cousin George who he worked for and then I remember Karsky. Was Karsky before or after George? Karsky used to give the men lunch money and dad saved it for us. He got in trouble with Karsky over it and he didn’t give to him anymore. Mom had to live in an apartment in Ghetto-Brooklyn where Dad stayed up all night once a month to peel back the wainscoting of the walls to kill cockroaches. Mom tried to protect various children who were abused and even abducted 2 children in our cold water apartment building. who were left alone and crying as their teenage parents were gone a lot. The Grandmother for these children came and took them with her. Mom had to protect us from the mentally ill and deranged landlady’s son, because he was always trying to kill Diane and her friend Barbara Schuchinski.
Mom also protected Barbara’s mother from her husband at times by hiding her at our house. She and Dad tried to keep us off the streets by giving you piano lessons and me ballet. She went to work at a Norwegian Hospital as a Nurses Aide to bring in money. I remember her as kind but timid in this strange and dangerous world. Her happiness was her children. She was a devoted mother and tried to protect us from the streets.
Read MoreDiane & Ron Pavellas (Siblings)
(Written around three years ago when Diane and I thought mom was near death)
We add the parenthetical phrase to the title of this biographical sketch because Mom seems to know there is an afterlife. Within the last year she has said she wants to be with her family and friends “on the other side.”
Dad died in year 2000. They had been married 65 years. Mom mourned, but not terribly. It gave her a bit of freedom she had yearned for, we believe.
Mom has lived with Diane since then, and Diane has treated her like a queen: facials, nails and hair and clothes. Mom has loved it.
After a year of on-and-off stays at various levels of institutional care, mom recently has suffered a stroke, larger than the small ones that had slightly crippled her dominant left hand around two years ago. We don’t know how long her body will function, but her cognitive functions continue to diminish, acutely now with the latest stroke. She hasn’t been able to walk for around six months—her brain and legs don’t connect well enough.
Artemis Helen Pagonis began in 1918 as the youngest of four children of a poor Greek immigrant family in San Francisco: George Pagonis and Helen, née Diakakis.
George was then a skilled confectioner, but a failed businessman working for other Greeks in San Francisco restaurants. He might have had 6 or 8 years of formal schooling. George and Helen met in San Francisco, and both came from Astros, on the Peloponnesus. We know nothing of their antecedents. When Ron was more avidly interested in genealogy around 20 years ago, he asked Uncle Harry, the oldest of the siblings, about his parents’ families. His only response was, “let sleeping dogs lie.”
Three years after mom was born, another girl was born and Helen died from complications accompanying the birth. Florence was the baby’s name; the children were told she was adopted by the doctor who delivered her, but we believe this to be a tall tale for the sake of the other children’s sensibilities. More likely, she was taken to an orphanage. The girls lived alone for some time and survived on 5 cents a day while her father and Harry, aged nine or ten years, went out to make money. Harry sold papers on a corner and waited up all night until George decided to return home from the card rooms where he spent his off-work hours. He hardly slept. (He ultimately contracted tuberculosis, for which he was treated, on and off, over the years until his death from pneumonia around age 65). The girls were alone and Bea who was 7 or 8 was the mother to Artemis 3 and Angeline 4-1/2. Bea was made responsible for the household. She was in charge of the feeding and caring of these two toddlers.
They were all taken away by the State because the neighbors complained there was no one home for these children. They were placed in a “horrible” Stockton orphanage, 60 miles from San Francisco. The matrons were stern and unloving. They carried sticks for discipline purposes. The girls were forced to eat and when they didn't, they were beaten. Angie wet the bed so they put her in the basement with rats to convince her to stop. This made it worse. She claimed to have suffered permanent kidney damage from this, later in life after she complete nurse training. Whenever someone came to look at one or another child for foster care they would act up as they didn't want to be separated. They were all finally placed with Mrs. Vroman in Portland, Oregon, and were happy. Mrs. Vroman saw that Bea had musical talent and gave her piano lessons. The little girls were treated lovingly and got enough to eat.
Mom and Dad first met when she was a baby. Dad's father, Alexander K. Pavellas, was godfather to many of the children born to Greek immigrants in and around San Francisco because of his being highly educated, influential and having been the Greek Consul General of San Francisco. Mom was about 4, and dad 10. We were told that when dad and his father visited mom's father, George Pagonis, mom sat on dad's lap. They met again later when dad came to George’s home to sell newspaper subscriptions. The three sisters and dad went to the movies; he and Mom talked all the way through the movie and became engaged. It was expected he would end up with Bea, the oldest and “prettiest,” by American standards. But mom fell head over heels, and so did he. He found her to be real, without guile and free spirited—plus, Diane believes, very sexy. He was immediately smitten. He was in need of love and companionship; he had just lost his mother, father and uncle and was burdened with the care of his aunt Genevieve and her son, dad’s cousin Nestor.
This was 1935, in the depth of the Great Depression. Dad was trying to hang on the family business, a Greek-American newspaper, The Prometheus, he had inherited from his father and his father’s business partner (Aunt Genevieve’s husband—George D. Pappageorge—and leader of the family) all died within that year. Dad had to drop of his senior year at Cal.
He was on his way to Canada to sell more subscriptions and had 25 cents on him. Mom told him he couldn't go without her because he wouldn't come back, so she went with him to Canada with 25 cents and a Model T Ford. At the border, the Canadian officials were not going to let them in as you had to have a particular amount of money to enter, but they told the Border patrol they were getting married in Canada so they let them in. Dad left his watch as security. We don't know where they got married. Dad collected on a sufficient number of subscriptions to The Prometheus to get home again.
They all moved in together, Dad, Mom, Genevieve and Nestor. Nestor was 11. We don't know where they lived.
Ron's first memories are at age 4-5 living with dad, mom, Harry, Bea, Angie and grandpa in the upper flat on 433 Arguello Blvd., between Geary and Clement. I think they lived previously on Cherry Street when I was first born, as they mentioned it often. When I was around 2 the three of us lived a year in Brisbane and I had a dog, Brownie, and had whooping cough for that year.
---
Diane's memories
My first memories were of Brooklyn, I don’t know how we got there but I thought it was a train.
I was 3-1/2, so you must have been 9. I remember how dad suffered under his cousin George who he worked for and then I remember Karsky. Was Karsky before or after George? Karsky used to give the men lunch money and dad saved it for us. He got in trouble with Karsky over it and he didn’t give to him anymore. Mom had to live in an apartment in Ghetto-Brooklyn where Dad stayed up all night once a month to peel back the wainscoting of the walls to kill cockroaches. Mom tried to protect various children who were abused and even abducted 2 children in our cold water apartment building. who were left alone and crying as their teenage parents were gone a lot. The Grandmother for these children came and took them with her. Mom had to protect us from the mentally ill and deranged landlady’s son, because he was always trying to kill Diane and her friend Barbara Schuchinski.
Mom also protected Barbara’s mother from her husband at times by hiding her at our house. She and Dad tried to keep us off the streets by giving you piano lessons and me ballet. She went to work at a Norwegian Hospital as a Nurses Aide to bring in money. I remember her as kind but timid in this strange and dangerous world. Her happiness was her children. She was a devoted mother and tried to protect us from the streets.
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