Tribute to Victor, John and Katina Kreatsoulas (siblings)
My earliest memories are of the old San Francisco Victorian in which I spent my childhood. Uncle Victor owned the house and lived on the main floor, mom and dad lived on the upper floor with me and my aunt Katina. When everyone upstairs was busy, I would bounce down the stairs calling out for my “Uncle VT.” It was a house always full of so much love and laughter, and just the thought of it now still warms my heart.
Victor N. Kreatsoulas, the eldest child of Nikolaos and Despina, was the first of his immediate family to come to the United States. He emigrated from Chios, Greece in 1955 leaving behind his parents and five siblings. By that time, his sister Gorgonia (Maria before becoming a nun) had already entered the monastery of Panagia Voithia. The priest at the monastery, Elder Anthimos, had blessed and given Victor a small tama to take with him on his journey; he told Victor that in times of illness, loneliness, or doubt, to pray to the Panagia and she would help and guide him. It was the last time that Victor would see him – in January 1960, Elder Anthimos reposed in peace, later canonized in 1992.
Like so many others who came before him, Victor came in search of opportunity, but also with the intent to help his family who he had left behind. He first arrived in Chicago, Illinois where cousins from Chios had already settled, and found a job in a Greektown restaurant. But after only six months, Victor decided to go further west. He had more cousins in California and decided to join them in San Francisco.
Within two years of arriving in the U.S., Victor had not only sent money home to his family (helping them to buy a home) and to the monastery, he had also saved enough money to buy his very own home – accomplishing an important dream in his young life. He purchased a Victorian on 23rd Street in San Francisco; it was a large house with many bedrooms and he hoped that one day he would be able to bring his siblings and parents to join him.
In 1961, his youngest brother, John (my father) arrived, with the intent to only stay long enough to make a little money and go back to Chios. He had left home at 16, working in the Merchant Marines and as well as serving his time in the Greek Navy. At the young age of 24, he had already seen so much of the world. Over the next few years, John spent time working in both Sacramento and San Francisco. In 1963, he was living with his big brother in San Francisco, but had decided it was time to return to Chios and follow his own dreams – buy a home, find a good Greek woman and have a family of his own. But before doing so, a friend asked John if he could do him a favor and join him on a double date.
On May 7, 1963, John went on that date and met Colleen Patricia Finley, an Irish Catholic girl of 19. She was born in Glendale, California and had come to San Francisco after her mother had passed away only a few years before (her father died only months before Colleen was born). Colleen’s maternal grandparents had emigrated from Ireland and helped to settle the town of Parnell, Iowa. She went home that night and wrote to her best friend that she had met the man she was going to marry – and she did. On their second date, John and Colleen became engaged and on July 17, 1963, they were married at the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in San Francisco. Colleen wrote (and John translated) a letter to her new in-laws to tell them she had been chrismated in the Orthodox Church and that she promised to raise her children to know the Greek faith and history.
John and Colleen eventually moved into the second story apartment of Victor’s old Victorian. Then in January of 1966, John and Victor brought their youngest sister, Katina, to join them and she moved into one of the bedrooms upstairs. Katina had always dreamed of going to college and so she worked and studied, convincing her father to let her go abroad to study. Katina spent her first year in the U.S. attending American Language Institute of San Francisco State University before pursuing her bachelor’s degree in English literature. For the span of her time at San Francisco State, she attended on a student visa as she had every intention to return to Chios.
The old Victorian was filling nicely. Katina met other young Greeks at college and they would come by to study, listen to music, and recall memories of home and their loved ones. Cousins would come by on the weekends, playing cards, listening to old Greek records, and telling Colleen stories about life in Greece. In this house, friends were like family, and family were the best of friends.
In 1969, John and Colleen had their first (and only) child, Despina - the first grandchild to Nikolaos and Despina, and god-daughter to Victor and Katina. In that same year, John started working for Lucky Grocery Stores as a truck driver (from where he retired in 1999). He eventually settled his family in Vacaville. John and Colleen were actively involved in their church community and raised their daughter to love and cherish her faith, family and Greek history and heritage. He had a great love and respect for both his countries and taught his daughter more about U.S. and Greek history than any classroom could ever provide. John and Colleen also encouraged the pursuit of higher education and never believed that there was any goal, or dream of her own, that their daughter could not achieve.
In 1971, Katina received her Bachelor’s Degree from San Francisco State University. She decided to pursue a Master’s Degree, remaining on her student visa. But by the following year, she decided to stay in the U.S. and applied for her citizenship. In 1974, she received an offer from the Defense Language Institute at Ford Ord (Monterey, California) to work as a language teacher – her citizenship was completed the following year. She taught Greek through 2003, during which time she also helped to create the interactive video learning tool, served as the subject matter expert to develop the new Greek language course, and also worked to write the new proficiency exams which are still used today.
Victor passed away in 1999, and after his funeral, we never returned to the old Victorian. But the memories that we share of that house and of our time there are something that we all hold very dear. It was a place where dreams were first made and met, and where hope, love and joy were always in abundance.
