Alex was an incredibly polite baby. He came 2 1/2 hours after I started having labor pains, and just 20 minutes after arriving at the maternity clinic. The maternity clinic was a new concept in Greece, started by a doctor who believed that having babies was not being sick and should not happen in a hospital. He opened the ‘maternity clinic’ which was more like a first class hotel and meant only for women having babies. Alex was very sweet and calm and even when he cried it was very gentle more like a little lamb whimpering.

We went to Karachi, Pakistan when he was just a couple of months old. There, I had to fight with the Aya so that I could feed him, bathe and change his diaper. She was used to the British old fashioned way of taking care of babies and could not understand my wanting to be a hands-on mom.

Alex was a very clever and ambitious little baby. At 7 months he would get up and holding on to the bar he would walk to the two corners of his crib, unscrew the screws to let the side bar fall down and jump onto my bed that was next to his crib. I remember waking up to the sound of the wing screws falling on the floor and his giggles of delight as he would jump on my bed to hug me.

And of course he got up and walked at just 8 months. 

He had red hair back then and we used to call him Scotty as we thought it must have come from his Scottish ancestors.

After Pakistan we moved to Akron, Ohio. We lived in Cuyahoga Falls in a community of first time home owners so there were many children Alex’ age he could play with.

 His favorite though was Kelly, the little girl next door. They were very fond of each other.

And then we moved to Greece where we had wonderful times sailing, going to the beach and on picnics with our temperamental car ‘Herbie’ that always chose the most remote places to break down. We also had Doushka, our Borzoi dog. Since no one had seen a Borzoi in Greece before, instead of ‘what breed’ people would ask ‘what kind of an animal’ is that?

Alex went to St. Catherine, the British Embassy school in Athens and excelled both academically and in sports. He loved to read and devoured the Encyclopedia Britannica. learning whole pages by heart. To this day, he is a true encyclopedia, full of trivia knowledge on just about any subject.

When my work moved me to England we lived in Ashtead, Surrey. Alex went to City of London Freemen’s school – through his ‘teenage phase’.

Interesting coincidence about the school. It had been originally a manor house. My sister, who lives in Greece, found an old letter that had been left in the basement of her house by the previous owner that was addressed to Sir Thomas Lucas, Ashtead, Surrey – the original owner of the manor house before it was turned into a school.

Alex is now a successful Strategic Relationship Executive, specializing in developing C-Level relationships.