When he first came to America, he began working in the supermarket his uncle owned — Nick Phillip’s supermarket, it was called. 

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‘Did you like working there?’ I asked. 

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“Oh yeah, it was pleasure. We were all together there… We used to go to the Greektown, after we finish. I rented a room with the Cyprian guys. Canton St. and Mack.”

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Papou enjoyed working at Nick Phillip’s supermarket. There, he had spent three years learning how to become a butcher.

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Regardless, when his sister Maria’s husband, Theo Neophytos, wanted to come to America, Papou sent for him. He got him the ticket and papers to come to Detroit. What’s more, Papou gave up his job at the grocery store, and gave it to my Theo Neophytos. No questions asked.  

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Papou was never scared to give his job away. He always knew he could find another one. His experience in Limassol, finding his way on his own for five years as a young boy, is where I believe this confidence comes from. Even as a foreigner — a 19-year old in a massive city — moving on to a new part of life was second nature to Papou. He got out of the restaurant business, and took a job in a completely different industry, working at Great Lakes Steel — in that time a dangerous job to have. 

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And that’s one of his lessons to me: “You gotta try to learn more than one thing in life. Then you don’t get scared. If you know just one thing, you gotta wait to get hired or find the job. But if you know how to do different things, then there’s nothing to it… If a guy comes and fix my icebox or fix my stove, I watch him, and the next time I know better than he does… The more experience you get, the better it is.”

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Papou’s curiosity is endless. As an 88-year old, he still is learning each and every day. He is always looking for potential real estate opportunities, new ways to fix the stove, and following the NHL hockey playoffs. 

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This is what helps me to realize how blessed I am to be able to go to school. Papou’s zeal for learning would’ve made him an incredible student — but he never got the chance. When he was a boy in Cyprus, he thought his father would send him to school. In Limassol he wanted to go to school as well. In the U.S. he thought his uncle Nick would help him get educated, finally. But the opportunity was never there. He even tried to go to night school twice a week when he first arrived here, without his uncle knowing. But when his uncle found out, that was the end of that. Papou apparently, was meant to work, not get an education. But that didn’t stop him from doing well for himself, and ultimately for his family.