Riveting and heart-wrenching words from the grandmother of three-year-old Angelos — who died tragically in Heraklion, Crete, after suffering abuse — have moved countless people across Greece. Speaking to cretalive, she described the unbearable pain of losing her grandson and the haunting final moments she shared with him at the University Hospital of Heraklion (PA.G.N.I.).
‘I Love You So Much… I’m Sorry I Didn’t Understand’
During the organ donation procedure — the last time she held him — she whispered into his ear: “I love you so much… I’m sorry I didn’t understand anything, and I wasn’t there for you.” Those words, spoken in quiet anguish, capture a grief too deep for language.
Her remarks came just hours after the court sentenced her daughter, Eleftheria, and Eleftheria’s former partner to life imprisonment for Angelos’s abuse and death. Though she attended every hearing quietly and with restraint, she was often seen comforting her daughter — gently stroking her hair, holding her close like a child seeking shelter. She insists she never believed Eleftheria harmed Angelos.
“I’m not only Eleftheria’s mother,” she said. “I was also Angelos’s grandmother — and we adored him. If I had truly believed she’d hurt him, I would have condemned her myself.”
A Mother’s Shock and Disbelief
When she first learned Angelos had collapsed, Eleftheria told her only that he’d fainted. Rushing to Heraklion from elsewhere, Anna scrolled through online news reports while waiting at the airport — and nearly collapsed upon reading what had happened.
“My Lady, please let this be a mistake,” she prayed aloud as she approached the hospital. At first, staff wouldn’t let her into the Pediatric ICU or tell her what had occurred. When she finally entered, she froze.
“That little being — my Angelos — lying there like that? It wasn’t possible. What did they do to him? What is this? I knew nothing. I hadn’t even seen him yet. And I kept asking: What could this tiny child have possibly done to deserve this? Why?”
She remembers touching his hands — still warm — just as she had during their last visit together. His feet, too, felt familiar. But seeing his small body motionless, silent, unresponsive — that image remains seared in her mind, unrelenting.
“I couldn’t believe I’d never hear his voice again. That we’d never sing our song together again. Not for one second did I believe it.”
A Weekly Pilgrimage to Remember
Every Sunday — the only day she doesn’t work — Anna visits Angelos’s grave at the Kallithea cemetery. She tidies the site, speaks to him, and tells him he’s loved.
“I’m sure he hears me,” she says softly. “He knows.”