"Summer of 1919. The children had by now finished high school. Each of them was at the beginning of a course. He was looking far ahead, the road was lost in a cloud of dust.[...] Winter had gone full of difficulties and ill fortune.[...]

January and February have been the worst months for Angelos. Father was left jobless. Many a case they had to go to bed without food. His younger brother was crying, complaining and they did not know how to soothe him. They have sold two or three heavy blankets, which were not totally worthless, they sold the bronze vessels - a cauldron for washing and such staff. The winter was harsh, with no fire. The daily newspaper of father was missing and they talked only about unemployment and deprivation.[...] Then spring came. [...] By May Smyrna was Greek. The ships left from the nothern ports of the White Sea with sealed commands. They opened them in the sea and went straight to mythical Ionia. The great motherland! Joy, songs, yells. The whole Aegean has become a lake of ours, its islands were green bridges for the places where thousands years earlier the Greek race has rooted. Bells, flags. Marches. Venizelos. Calls from the coast opposite, letters full of longing and admiration, brought by the waves on their back and laid at the feet of the old, tortured Greece. Roses and girls. Fair and dark and sweet-blooded girls. Life would now become easier and happier. And among all these events the children took to reading with fervour. Summer was warm, noons full of serenity. Angelos was sweating on his papers leaning on the burdened table with his threadbare sleeves. He wanted to learn everything afresh, not to miss anything -the way was open by now. Asia Minor was a huge, new world. "We need", they said, "plenty of civil servants. We need doctors, lawyers, engineers, the whole Turkey is ours". Yes, Greece would go there, a new Greece as well, full of knowledge and youth. Father reread now his newspaper -he believed that everything would go well."

J.M. Panayotopoulos, Astrofengia, (1st ed. 1945), Athens, Astir editions, 1980, pp. 60-62.