Older female children were forced to join the guerrillas. As conditions worsened, the communists separated young children from their families and sent them into exile in Albania and other communist countries. Eventually the Greek communists took control in Lia. War, first with Germans during World War II and later between communist guerrillas and government forces, changed their relatively simple lives. Hoping to join him someday, Eleni shared her abundance with neighbors who admired and envied her. His hard work enabled him to send money and gifts to his family. Christos, her husband, had emigrated to the United States. Many villagers had never been out of the general vicinity, but Eleni's family was different. Much of the book takes place in Lia, a village near the Greek-Albanian border. Eleni is no idealized saint, but her devotion to her children's survival is an example of motherhood's very best qualities. His account of his family's life and his mother's death at the hands of Greek communist guerrillas after World War II tells in vivid terms of the power of a mother's love. Eleni, the real-life heroine of this superb book, was the mother of the author, Nicholas Gage.
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