Heard this at a dinner last night. Touching story from Spiros’ grandson:
Back in the late forties early fifties, Spiros, a former Elas resistance fighter, was sentenced to death in a similar way that Nick Belogiannis was executed.
At the same time, the French government had started a correspondence 
program (a Pen Pal program) between imprisoned fighters and the french people.
Collette picked a random name out of a box and Sprios’ name came up (Spiros was 28, Collette 18).
They started corresponding. They corresponded for two years and their correspondence eventually took the form of love letters. Because of a 
change of events (including Stalin’s demand that the Greek government stop executing resistance fighter and our Balkan neighbour’s war games to show that General Secretery Stalin wasn’t kidding) Spiros was pardoned.
Spiros married Collette. Their marriage lasted (and still keeps on going strong) for 50 years. They have many kids and many more grandkids.
Collette and Spiros spent most of their years in Paris, but whenever anyone from this area needed to go to Paris for any reason, especially medical reasons, Collette and Spiros would go out of their way to help this 
individual, even insofar as hosting them in their house. They never asked for anything in return.
Especially young children (cancer victims, kidney failure victims) that needed to go for a transplant, Collette and Spiros would host them, feed them, take care of them, and introduce them to lovely and enchanting Paris. They have done this too many time to mention. They never asked for, or accepted a dime for their care.
Collette and Spiros’ actions have nothing to do with charity so don’t get your figures wrong.
What would we call their actions ?
Humanity !
Merci Collette, καί ευχαριστώ απ’ τα βάθη της καρδιάς μου κύριε Σπύρο απ’ το Παρίσι.
David Siqueiros
