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Paraskevi Mikelis, One of the Oldest Members of Greek Community Passes Away at the Age of 103

Paraskevi Mikelis, one of the oldest members of the Greek Community, passed away on Wednesday, 27 July, at the age of 103, at her home in Fort Lee, New Jersey.
The late Paraskevi Mikelis, as her son Bill stated to the “National Herald”, retained complete clarity of mind, engaged in cooking, and was completely herself up until the past six months, when her health deteriorated.
Her life was an adventure with a happy ending, like other immigrants seeking a better fortune on the opposite shore of the Atlantic and beyond have enjoyed.
Born in 1908 at Ano Lesinitsa, Northern Epirus, she was married to Stefanos Mikelis, who had migrated to America. Like other women of Northern Epirus whose husbands had migrated at that time, Paraskevi stayed in the village and raised her two sons, Vasileios and Demetrios. In 1945, when the borders were closed, Paraskevi Mikelis fled with her two sons, staying in Greece for two years until their documents were approved for America.

The coveted day came on February 5th 1947, when they arrived in New York. The family settled down and the children attended school. After Bill’s studies in college and service in the U.S. Army, he was engaged in the restaurant business, and together with his late father and brother, became associated with the historical Northern Epirus Association “Pyrros”, leading the efforts of the Pan – Epirotic Federation on issues concerning Northern Epirus.
Bill and his brother, along with Paraskevi’s nine grandchildren and nine great – grandchildren, will bid their last farewell at her funeral service on Saturday, 30 July,  in St. John the Theologian Greek Orthodox Cathedral, Tenafly, New Jersey.

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