Fighting through pain and the indifference of those who did not truly know him. Such determination, climbing the floors of the building with his walking stick. Such determination, never to let a word of complaint escape his lips.
For more than two decades, Giorgos Linaras corrected the copy at Politis.
Life treated him unfairly, as it has so many others. Multiple sclerosis seized him and struck him without mercy.
I am writing these lines half an hour after leaving Uncle Giorgos’s funeral service. On the drive back to the Politis offices, countless memories moved back and forth in my mind. How hard life itself can make things, with its sudden and unpredictable blows.
“To die is nothing; what is frightening is not to live,” Victor Hugo once said. As I drove towards the old city of Nicosia, I found myself holding on to that thought. Around me, people hurried to meet a thousand different needs and obligations, unaware of what was going through my mind. After all, each of us is captive to our own concerns.
Of one thing I was certain. Mr Giorgos, lying in his coffin, had no anxiety as he made his way to his final resting place. How many times we reflected on such matters during our endless shifts. He lived every moment. Fighting through pain and the indifference of those who did not truly know him. Such determination, climbing the building’s floors with his walking stick. Such determination, never to let a complaint be heard.
Hugo was absolutely right. It is not death that is frightening, but not living. Until only a few days ago he insisted on correcting our texts. He lived to offer whatever service he could, and more. As though long prepared, he would recite Cavafy to me, proving him right through the poem “As Much As You Can”:
“And if you cannot shape your life as you would wish,
at least try this
as much as you can: do not degrade it
by too much contact with the world,
by too much movement and talk.
Do not degrade it by dragging it about,
by exposing it so often
to the daily foolishness
of relationships and social dealings,
until it becomes a stranger, a burdensome thing.”
That “as much as you can” he managed to turn into a daily way of life.
This column, which he corrected countless times, bids him farewell today with these few lines. You emerged victorious in life. Farewell, dear Uncle Giorgos.