“He went on vacation alone and camped. I took life lessons from Christos,” said, among other things, his brother who left after his battle with cancer. About the loss of both dear brother, paralympian Christos Ggourakis, and his two parents, Harris Emmanuel spoke in the interview he gave this week to the newspaper On Time and journalist Sissy Menegatos. CORVERSE How was your life with your brother, paralympian Christos Ggourakis, who was stranded in a wheelchair from 22 years old due to an accident? Christ was great. Do you know how many mothers invited Christos because their children, who were disabled, didn’t want to go out? Christ went, talked to them, and slowly faced it. They saw that he brought medals, fought, and took courage. He was invited to schools and made speeches. In Periyali Corinthia, where he lived in recent years, his sister Paul Orkopoulos had an amateur theatre team. He went and played, he was very good as an actor. He also directed a play by Molière. In words we had, he said to me: “My brother, it took me a year and a half to “eat it” and say “I have no legs, my legs are these two wheels”. Indeed, he had made up his mind. He was not prevented by his disability from becoming an Olympic champion, going out, having fun, getting married, having a family, having a son, two grandchildren, going everywhere. CORVERSE He went on vacation alone and went camping. I took life lessons from Christos. He would say to me: ‘ Don’t let yourself be sad because a girl left you or because you lost a part, the moment you wake up, you come out and the sun caress all the members of your body. Is that possible?” This power and optimism, Christos passed them everywhere. This was the most difficult loss of your life: Yes, like my mother’s three months before Christos “goes away”. But our mother was 93 years old. Our father was suffering from cancer. He was in a lot of pain and death came redeeming for him. Christ’s death – from cancer too – cost us a lot because he had fought since the 22nd year of the accident, but he never let us feel that he was different from us. He didn’t give up. He was traveling. He reached Tehran with a truck, along with a friend of the trucker from Katerini.
Harry Emmanuel: “My brother “run away” from cancer and cost us too much, he was fighting from 22 years old”
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in Lifestyle