My grandmother’s lost homeland

This photograph shows my great grandmother, her name was Athina Kitsaki, and my great grandfather Konstantinos Kontoudakis, and their two children. It was taken in 1923 in Crete, right after they arrived in Greece. At the time of the exchange, my great grandmother was 24 and my great grandfather was 41 years old.

My grandmothers both come from the prosperous area of Smyrna just off the Turkish c…