Belonging

by Barbara DeLeo

We’re four weeks into our three month trip to Greece and Cyprus and it’s as incredible as I imagined. One of the main reasons we decided to do such an extended trip with the kids was to forge links to one part of their heritage. 

The ancestral home in Agios Isidoros, Plomari, Lesvos

I remember the first time I went to Ireland where my own grandfather was from. All those little mannerisms and sayings that I'd thought were my family's (often embarrassing) quirks, were owned by a whole town! After that visit I felt suddenly more "connected", and more proud than embarrassed.

My husband's parents are travelling with us this time and we’re visiting the places where they're from.

Plomari

Last week we were in the village of Plomari  on the island of Lesvos. My husband’s grandfather  left the village in his twenties to seek a better life in New Zealand. A wife from the same village was sent over for him a few years later!

They came back to the village for a time when my father-in-law was young and to be here now with my father-in-law and my children is very special. We’ve had afternoon tea in the garden my  children’s great-grandmother tended, swum in the beach where their grandfather learned to swim, and walked the cobbled streets of their ancestors.

Me in the garden of the old house.
Greek sweets for afternoon tea!

A village stroll after "another" long lunch

The girls (me, my twin daughters and their Yiayia)
take a walk to get the bread

In two weeks time we’ll be visiting the village in Cyprus my mother-in-law left when she was seven. She’s very excited about showing my kids where she helped tend the almond trees and to introduce them to village life. Her memories are still so vivid of that time that it makes me realize the deep seated connection to a place we can have.

More pictures of me in Greece here!

In my first book Contract for Marriage, released next week, (squeals a little bit, next week!!) Ruby, who is pregnant and alone, suddenly realizes she needs to be back where she belongs. Only problem is, it’s the same place the man who broke her heart ten years ago wants for himself.

I'd love to know where you feel you belong. Is it a place, is it with certain people, or is it somewhere you’re still searching for?