The last of three Greek women who became known as “refugee grandmothers” died on Sunday.
Emilia Kamvysi was 93 years old and the world met her in 2015, when she, together with two other women, was photographed giving a bottle to a baby who had just arrived on the island of Lesbos.
The photo went viral and the three old women became a symbol of solidarity with the thousands of refugees who risked their lives – or lost their lives – to reach Greece and flee the war in Syria.
Emilia Kamvisi, 85, Lesbos, feeding a refugee baby a bottle. pic.twitter.com/vL2mqxaFbv
– Raquel Martí (@Raquel_Marti_) February 16, 2016
Emilia Kamvysi, Maritsa Mavrapidou and Efstratia Mavrapidou were even nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, but they always insisted that they never did anything special.
When the then president of Greece, Prokopis Pavlopoulos, praised Emilia Kamvysi for her act of kindness, the woman responded with a single question: “What have I done, my son?”
The refugees “are kind people just passing through,” said Emilia Kamvysi, another journalist.
The three women were daughters of refugees who fled from Turkey to Greece in their youth.
Maritsa Mavrapidou died in 2019 at the age of 92 and Efstratia Mavrapidou died last year at the age of 96.
Source: TSF
