Cyprus Flaounes
I'm thinking of what I could do for the woman who left her small village at twenty years old, bore four children in a foreign country without her mother, fed, clothed, washed, changed, educated, loved all of them the best she could.
One of them is Eftyhia's Cyprus Flaounes, which I see is one of the most viewed blog posts on this blog. Also, her Mom's Cyprus Eliopites, Olive Breads, are also very much viewed and hopefully baked. As we are facing this crisis and cannot bake our traditional Easter Breads, the only thing I can do is write a tribute to my Mother and all mothers around the world.
when the Turks bombed the island. In 1967 she returned to Cyprus where we lived until the Turkish army invaded on July 20, 1974. This time, there was no return. Turkey still occupies the one third of the island they took during the invasion, and expanded during a cease fire.
The small hotel, Casablanca, that she and my father built and completed in 1974,
has been used since as a hotel for Turkish Army Officers to take their R&R.
With all that adversity, she and dad continued raising their family and lived for the past 46 years in New York.
This past November, she fell and ended up in a nursing home. Just as we got used
to that idea, the coronavirus hit the world worse than a meteor. Nursing homes, of course, are very vulnerable. We found out two days ago that mom has been running a fever and coughing. She is getting tested for the virus. We haven't even been able to contact the staff to find out about her vitals and her fever.
The world is in such crisis that for days no one has been answering the phones on the floor.
How do I know what's happening with my mother?
Just got word that she's alert, talking and eating! We have hope.
Hope that we will see each other again, speak to each other and tell the stories of our ancestors.
Hope that we will share our traditional breads, whose recipes have been preserved here, because mom can no longer remember them.
Hope for humanity and an end to this cruel Pandemic.
Maria
