Eirini Baroulaki, Oldest Woman in Greece, Has Died, 119

 

"Baroulaki, Oldest Woman in Greece, has died, 119" published in The National Herald, May 25, 2024.

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Several years ago, we were lucky enough to get permission from The National Herald to repost articles that are of interest to our group.

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ATHENS – Eirini Baroulaki, the oldest living woman in Greece, passed away at the age of 119 on May 14. 

As zarpanews.gr reported, Baroulaki lived all her life in Paidochori, Apokoronou Municipality in Chania.

The Municipality of Apokoronou announced her passing, noting the principles with which she was raised and passed on to her children, who were by her side until the end. 

The Municipality of Apokoronou in its announcement states: "With respect, we say good-bye to the oldest person in our country, Eirini Baroulaki, who passed away at the age of 119. The deceased was born, raised a family, and lived throughout her life in our Municipality, in Paidochori, Apokoronou. Her way of life and her virtues are models for us and an example to follow. We express our condolences to her relatives and may the soil of the Apokoronio land that will welcome her be light. May her memory be eternal."

Some time ago, Baroulaki underwent hip surgery at the Chania Hospital. The operation had gone well and she had returned home to her children and grandchildren.

"Actually, the hip surgery was performed on the grandmother by two orthopedic surgeons of our Hospital. She underwent tests which were very good and on the 22nd of the month she was discharged,” the director of the Chania Hospital, Giorgos Beas, told zarpanews.gr in January, after the operation.

"She was in the village in a wheelchair, my brother was with her. They had gone to an area next door and as he was pulling her to enter a room that had a high step, she slid off the wheelchair and fell on her back and there was damage to the hip,” the elderly woman's son had said on a Mega show, a few days after her discharge.

Who was Eirini Baroulaki? 

Eirini Baroulaki, as reported by haniotikanea.gr, was the second child of a large family with four girls and two boys. She had good genes – her father had died at the age of 107 and her mother at 100.

Her marriage took place in 1939, with Spyros Stylianou Baroulakis, who was born in 1911. According to her children, herself and Lefteris Georgoudakis (Ramniotis), the bride, then aged 34, was five years older than the groom and there were comments in the village that she would not be able to have children.

However, she had five, three boys and two girls. She raised them with the difficulties and poverty of that time and with her husband's small disability pension. He was disabled on the Albanian front in WWII – the toes of one of his feet had been deformed due to frostbite. She supported her family under the conditions and deprivations of that time, working as a harvester and gatherer.