Couple living here for more than 60 years.

While most of the older members of the Greek community have moved away from Springs, Harry Papadopoulos (94) and his wife Aeleni (84), from Strubenvale, are still residents of our town.

With both Harry and Aeleni currently in a frail condition, their eldest daughter, Pouli de Roland-Phillips relayed her family’s history.

She says Harry opened the Athenian Cafe in Fourth Avenue, Geduld when he was in his twenties and in later years also opened a dry cleaning business is the same street.

He came from his homeland, Cyprus, after the Second World War in search of opportunities for a better life and to live and work Springs.

This was the time when Springs was a booming and thriving town.

Pouli says her parents choose to stay in Springs after the Greek community started to shrink in the 1980s.

Many of the older Greek residents moved closer to the Greek schools in Johannesburg or to other developing parts of the country.

Harry and Aeleni had met each other in Springs and got married in 1950.

Aeleni and her parents came from Greece when she was a teenager.

Her dad bought and owned the Ninth Street Cafe (opposite the current Mediclinic).

Pouli says her parents never had contact with their relatives in Greece, because most of their family also immigrated to South Africa.

Her parents are still tied to the Greek culture, and they are still members of the Greek orthodox church of Springs that was built in the 1970s.

Pouli says their home language was Greek and she and her sister, Mary Reynolds, grew up in the Greek tradition.

She remembers going to the extra-mural classes of the Greek school as a child where the children learned the Greek language and culture.

Pouli says her two daughters and Mary’s son lost this culture, because their home language is English.