He Already Packed His Suitcase:

My Dad Is Going Home to Crete After 30 Years

In late April, my dad packed his suitcase.

We don’t leave for Greece until June.

That one detail tells you everything you need to know about what this trip means to him.

My Greek immigrant father was just a boy when he ran away from a dirt-floor home in Crete at twelve years old, sailed the world with the merchant marines, and jumped ship in Detroit with nothing but the clothes on his back, and spent decades building a life in America. He is going home. He hasn’t been back in over thirty years.

And he is 76 years old.

I have so many feelings about this trip I barely know where to start.

The Joy

Watching my dad light up when we told him we were all going together was something I will never forget. This isn’t just a vacation. For him, it is a homecoming. It is closure. It is the final chapter of a story that has been unfolding his entire life.

We are traveling as a family — me, my sister, two of my sons, and my nephew. Three generations making this journey together. My youngest son is studying film, and he and my nephew plan to document the trip in a documentary style. I can already imagine the footage. An old man stepping off a plane onto the island he hasn’t seen in decades. The look on his face when he sees his village again.

I already know I will cry.

The Fear

But I want to be honest, because that is what I do here.

I am nervous.

My dad is not in the best of health. This is a long journey for a 76-year-old man who carries more emotion in his chest than most people carry in a lifetime. I know this trip will stir things up deeply. The grief, the memories, the complicated family history that inspired so much of Hope Is My Anchor.

And if you know Greeks, you know that passion runs high. Our family is no exception. There are still wounds there. Still people who hurt him. I am praying for peace and bracing for complexity at the same time.

That is probably the most honest sentence I have ever written on this blog.

The Hope

But here is what I keep coming back to.

He packed his suitcase in April.

That kind of anticipation, that kind of longing to go home after thirty years — that is not something you manufacture. That is a man who still believes the best is possible. A man who, at 76, with health challenges and a complicated history waiting for him on that island, still has hope.

That is exactly who he has always been. And it is exactly why I wrote his story.

If you have not yet read Hope Is My Anchor, it tells the true story of my father’s journey from Crete to America, and everything he carried in between. I have a feeling this trip is going to add a whole new chapter to our family’s story.

My father has carried Crete in his heart his entire life. That is what inspired me to write his story of leaving everything behind and building a life in America. Now we get to bring him back. Whatever happens on this trip, one thing is certain: it will be a story worth telling.

I cannot wait to share it with you.

If your parents or grandparents are still here, don’t wait too long to ask the questions that matter. You don’t have to have a Greek immigrant father like I do to capture important stories. So many of them disappear simply because nobody thought to ask. Download my free guide: 20 Questions to Ask Your Parents Before It’s Too Late

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