Stavrogerasimos "Jerry" Katsouris

Jerry Katsouris, raconteur, shopkeeper, life of the party and proud Nova Scotian died on June 28th from the effects of dementia. He was 95.

If Jerry had a superpower, it was his ability to accept life for what it was, and, despite its hardships, to find happiness and contentment. He was certainly acquainted with suffering. By the time he was 25, Jerry had endured the deaths of his father and two young brothers, a near-crippling injury, his family’s financial ruin in the Depression and Nazi occupation, chronic hunger and civil war. In 1943, his hometown, Argostoli, Greece, witnessed the massacre of 5,000 Italian prisoners of war by German soldiers. In 1953, it was levelled in an earthquake.

And so, Jerry, the youngest surviving son, left Greece to find a way to provide for his mother and sisters. But instead of seeing this as an exile, he decided it was an adventure. Later in life he admitted that he may have been a touch overconfident, taken in by a few Hollywood movies. He talked his way onto a merchant ship in Antwerp, even though he knew nothing of the sea. (This would become a recurring theme in life.) He sailed to faraway ports, sipped cocktails at the Tropicana, jumped ship, and collected a lifetime of stories to tell at the dinner table.

Eventually, Jerry settled into a middle-class Canadian life. He married, raised a family, earned a living, bought a nice car, loved his gas barbecue, ate a lot of lobster, and became involved in the community. The signs of past trauma were there if you knew where to look – the aversion to debt, the weird sang-froid at times of crisis, the preposterously full refrigerator – but he didn’t dwell on the past. Jerry achieved a level of comfort and security that most of us take for granted, but for which he counted himself very lucky.

His attachment to Greece faded a bit with time, replaced by a fierce loyalty to the country that had given him a chance, and to his home province especially. He would tell people who asked where he was from that he was a “Nova Scotian,” and then get a kick out of their confused reactions. He pretended it was a joke, but he actually meant it.

Jerry adored his family. He is survived by Bea Katsouris (nee Demetre), his devoted wife of 57 years; and his son Andreas, daughter-in-law, Jennifer Bell, and beloved granddaughter Sophia, all of Toronto. We will miss him dearly.

His family would like to extend special thanks to the staff of Glasgow Hall, Parkland at the Lakes, for their lovingkindness during Jerry’s final two difficult years. You were able to look beyond his diminished faculties to see the warm and playful man he had always been.

Visitation will be from 6 to 8pm Monday, July 3rd at Cruikshank’s Funeral Home, Windsor Street, Halifax. Funeral services will take place the following day, Tuesday, July 4th, at 11am at St. George’s Greek Orthodox Church, Purcell’s Cove Road, Halifax. Jerry will be buried in the family plot at the Lorne Street Cemetery, New Glasgow. He was never more at home than on the backroads of Pictou County. It is there that he wished to be laid to rest.

In lieu of flowers, we would be grateful for donations in Jerry’s name to the Nova Scotia Nature Trust, https://nsnt.ca/giving/donate/memorial-gifts/.

If there is a heaven, for Jerry it comes with a kitchen window, a birdbath and a pair of binoculars.