Theodora "Dora" Pantely

She had 11 siblings and grew up riding donkeys, picking olives and carob, and mastering Crocheting and embroidery skills that were absolutely beautiful and flawless. She talked about the one automobile that occasionally came to her village letting out huge steam and dust clouds, but the caravans of Camels passing through were much more intriguing.

In her late teens, her brother escorted her by ship to cross the Atlantic to move to the U.S. a few years prior to the Great Depression. In New York City she lived with her married sister and was nanny to her niece. When the Depression (1929) occurred, as the banks crashed, her brother worked and raised enough money to go back to Cyprus. Dora remained in New York and took a job in the Garment district as a seamstress. There she met her husband Savvas, who was from Paphos in Southern Cyprus. They had 3 daughters, Katherine, Eugenia, and Helen who were born in New York. She later moved to Detroit where she raised their daughters. Her Greek cooking and baking was outstanding. Dora was active in the Ladies Philoptohos at Church and Helen still remembers the joy of meeting Archbishop Makarios, then president of Cyprus, whom the ladies sponsored to come to bless Detroit.

Dora took her first airplane trip, escorting Helen to College in California. She loved California so much that Savvas came out and they settled there. They retired on a small farm in Watsonville, California where they had a huge garden, a few goats, chickens and ducks.

After Savvas passed away in 1980, she lived in Santa Cruz, and Cupertino, California before moving Austin to live with Helen and her husband Dick in 1998. Over the course of the last 15 years she aged gradually and gracefully to the point where she required assistance in much of her living. Her key to longevity was to use lots of lemon on her food. She had a lemon tree in every warm climate where she lived and even in Austin we gave her one in a pot that still produces a few lemons every year. She never lost her bright eyes, winning smile, and the love she had for her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren and caretakers. Even in her last days she would perk up when her great-grandson was present.

Funeral services will be held at 7:00 p.m., Thursday, September 12, 2013 at Saint Sopia Orthodox Church at 225 Rose Drive in Dripping Springs, Texas. Graveside service will be held at 10:00 a.m., Friday, September 13, 2013 at Cook-Walden/Forest Oaks Memorial Park in Austin, Texas.