Erifili Pagonis, born November 25,1935, in Athens, Greece, to parents George Pagonis and Anastasia Karayiannis, died in Las Vegas, Nevada, on April 1, 2020. Her life was a turbulent mix of tragedy and determination. Her happy young life was shattered when the German army invaded the town of Kilkis in Macedonia in the northern part of Greece in 1941. When first her father, her five older brothers, and then her mother were arrested and hauled away by the German occupiers, never to be seen again, six-year old Erifili and her younger brother, Christos Pagonis, escaped and became orphaned fugitives. For the duration of World War II, Erifili and Christos endured a terrifying struggle for survival, with only intermittent help from kindly, but frightened, neighbors.
After the war, her brother was placed in an orphanage in Salonica and her godparents, who had previously immigrated to the USA, managed to locate Erifili and arranged for her to join them in New York City. She arrived in New York City a skinny, undernourished teenager traumatized by years of deprivation and uncertainty. As part of her naturalization process, she adapted her birth name to be more Americanized as Erifili Edith Pagoni and usually went by the name of Edith.
Her godparents became her loving guardians, providing her a nurturing home, stability, and assurance she was loved. Edith built upon this new foundation to successfully integrate herself into American society and culture. Upon graduation from high school, she studied music at The Julliard School and became so accomplished at the piano that she was invited to play a recital in Carnegie Hall. After receiving her music degree, she was offered a chance to display her piano skills on a television show, but her godmother discouraged this career path. Instead, Erifili undertook to work in a restaurant owned by a friend’s father, where she learned to cook. After ten years of labor and thrift, with her godfather’s financial assistance, Edith opened a flower shop in New York City that thrived for more than 20 years from the 1960s through the 1980s.
In 1983, Erifili was introduced to and joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She remained an active member of the Church throughout her life. She reportedly had several proposals for marriage, but for reasons that were never really understood by her friends or probably, as well, by her suitors, she declined all opportunities to marry and had no children.
Looking for a change in life, Edith sold her New York flower shop and moved to Mesa, Arizona, where she opened a laundry and dry cleaning business. Due to a dishonest business partner, this endeavor was not successful and after four years in Arizona she moved to Las Vegas, where she was to spend the rest of her life. She worked for some time at Desert Springs Hospital. She then brushed off her cooking skills and worked at various restaurants as a sauce chef. She was always an active person, strong and determined in every endeavor. However, age and residual effects from the hardships of her young life brought various health problems, including diabetes, peripheral neuropathy, failing eyesight, blackouts, and enduring brain trauma from having her head savagely smashed by the butt of soldier’s rifle while a child.
When Erifili finally had to quit working and retired on her social security pension, her struggles only continued as it was extremely difficult for her to make ends meet on the little bit of money received from Social Security. She often felt desperately sad and lonely. Erifili did have many friends and had many who loved her, but she sometimes struggled to accept disappointment when friends failed to meet her high expectations. The stubborn determination that allowed Erifili to survive through unbelievable hardships and abuse also produced a personality that could be overbearing and intimidating. She sometimes alienated those who sought to help her. But the friends who knew her and loved her put up with her pride and willfulness because they also admired her strength of character and the charitable love that she so often manifest.
In the last years of her life, Erifili often spoke of how she yearned to be reunited with her long-lost and deeply missed parents. Erifili surely deserves that joyful reunion with her parents, even though all who knew her in this earth life will miss her, too.
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