It was September 15, 2009… Just two months after I enlisted in the National Guard to serve in the military. That morning, we thought it was like all the other mornings at the National Guard, during which the newly recruited soldiers were trained. Shortly before noon, however, a "bomb" exploded and shook the entire National Guard, plunging a family from Paralimni into mourning. The family of Iakovos Hadjispyros, 42 years old, whose fate awaited him a bad game.
Iakovos, a computer science teacher by profession and a reserve lieutenant, was about to leave so quickly for the long journey… He was to retire in an Akmat military vehicle on Avgoros Street, leaving behind his wife and two minor children, aged eleven and , who were waiting for their father to return home, but never returned.
At that time, as a soldier, I did not imagine that one day I would be in front of this family, nine years later, to tell me for the first time what happened that black morning for the family.
Arriving at the family home, my heart was beating fast and hard. You see, each interview has its own peculiarity and leaves its mark on the journalist. In fact, this was not just another interview, it was a life lesson.
After getting out of the car, I crossed the yard and saw two pairs of eyes welcoming me with a wide smile on their doorstep. She was Mrs. Litsa Hatzispyrou, wife of Iakovos and his son Konstantinos. A little further in, Fratzeska's daughter and his sisters, Lenia and Zoe.
Tied people, that the evil that found them did not bend them, did not break them, but united them even more.
Many times I felt small in front of the power of these people and especially of 20-year-old Konstantinos, who at that time had asked his family not to make a complaint about the culprits. He chose this path even though he knew that some people had deprived him of his father. The father who wanted to see him grow up and be proud of him. With inexhaustible strength he chose not to lose their other children to their father, who, if reported, might end up in prison. He did not want them to feel as he did. Even though he was only eleven years old then.
He forgot that he had to go to the army…
Going back in time to the morning of September 15, Ms. Litsa remembers that her husband forgot that he was going to the army and that he had an exercise. A childhood friend called him and reminded him.
"He called me at work around 8:30 and told me he would not go to school. I told him do you need to go? He told me yes it is a necessity, because they had to give him a medal ". This was to be the last time they would talk…
Ms. Litsa went to work regularly, specifically to the bank where she works. Around 11:00 he remembers the bank manager coming and going where he worked.
"At one point I told him do you want something from me? Do you want to tell me something? He tells me yes, get up to go to the hospital and do not worry. It was just an accident and Iakovos hit. What happened to me did not cross my mind. We started, we went to the hospital and there were not enough people to understand that something bad had happened. It did not cross my mind. They took me, brought me, and finally told me that Iakovos had left ".
"My son picked up the phone and told me, 'he will answer me'…"
The life of the Hatzispyrou family changed from one moment to the next. Mrs. Litsa, in her grief over the sudden death of her husband, had to lift the weight to announce the bad news to her children as well.
"Then we went home, people gathered and I had to tell my children. I had a cousin psychologist, who told me not to tell them she was injured, but I had to tell them directly. I caught both of them, namely my son Konstantinos and my daughter Fratzeska, who were then eleven and nine years old, respectively. I put them in the room and told them.
Fratzeska did not show up, but Konstantinos grabbed my phone and told me he would answer me, talk to me and try to call him. He would definitely answer me, he said. I grabbed him and shook him. I told him do you understand what I told you? "Then he realized what had happened."
The shock erased the memories
Fratzeska is quiet, Konstantinos is a more open character, but both have one thing in common. The memory gaps around their father.
"I do not remember many things from my father because I was young, but also because of the shock. But I remember some days when we went to the sea together, as a family. Mainly pictures. I lost my memory from my childhood. "We also went on some trips together on the hunt", Konstantinos remembers.
We tried to keep the memory of the father alive, said the sister of the undefeated Iakovos, Mrs. Lenia. "When we said at school, for example, that the teacher knew your father, Konstantinos sought to hear about his father. Our Fratzeska, it is as if she closed her ears a little. We tried to tell stories with Iakovos in order to keep his memory alive ".
"I did not want other children to lose their father…"
At one point, during the preparation of the interview and before I went to the family home, I noticed that there was no lawsuit against family leaders anywhere. Naturally, this question kept running through my head, until I got the courage to ask why.
In Constantine's answer I froze for a few seconds. I looked with a flat look, as if a bomb had exploded in my ears. A child at the age of 11, with a huge greatness of soul…
"We discussed it as a family, but apart from the fact that it was psychedelic, we thought we were insulting his memory. I thought differently. I mean, why should I deprive the driver of the driver's babies? Or the engineer? They risked many years in prison. I did not accept that to happen. Yes, I was deprived of my father, but I did not want to do the same, I do not consider it right. That is, to do something they did to me. If we sued him, would our father come back?
"Will this car take us? We have families "
From the first moment that Iakovos entered the military vehicle, he expressed his fears for his safety… The fatal unfortunately confirmed his fears. "The driver told me," says the unfortunate professor's sister, "that James tried to get behind the wheel. He confessed to us that as soon as they entered Akmat, Iakovos said to the driver '' will this car take us? "We have families."
They saw the exercise and on the way back he said to his childhood friend who called him and reminded him that he had to go to the army, “come and sit in front of me now so that I can sit back with the others to do good things. And his friend said to him, "You are the Nisians, you should sit in front". "As we came we will leave." And then. The fatal happened. Akmat overturned and Iakovos cooled down in the wreckage of the vehicle.
Due to the accident in which his father lost his life, Konstantinos after school had the choice, either to go to the army or to be discharged. But he did not follow the easy path. He decided to do his education normally like all young people his age.
"I had a contact with the Minister of Defense and I could not go to the army, but I chose to go. "They did the training and then I was fired."
Besides, by decision of Panagiotis Kleanthous, commander of the 611th Infantry Battalion, an outpost located in Avgorou was dedicated to the memory of Iakovos Hadjispyros while the street where the family's house is located was named "Iakovos Hadjispyros Street" on the initiative of the Municipality He was also named after the computer room he taught for the last three years before he died so unjustly.
At the same time, a song was written by Iakovos' daughter, Fratzeska, talking about her father. The song was performed by Mr. Spyros Spyrou.
Your soul flew and became a bird γες you left this unjust life…
Source: Reporter