The love story of an American tourist and a Greek man who was born in Athens is 50 years old

Some people are meant to meet and even if some circumstances put obstacles in the way relationship those are determined to overcome them and let their love triumph.

Putting aside religions, mileage and reactions from relatives, Sura and Haris Sevastopoulos proved that a summer fling can turn into a lifelong relationship. Today they have two children, a grandchild and a beautiful love story of half a century to tell. And as they say they continue to… water their relationship with love and travel.

How it all started

In the summer of 1971, Sura Crutch, who had just graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art, was embarking on a three-month travel adventure, wanting to live “the experience of a young hippie hitchhiking across Europe,” as she describes it. The goal is to get to know the art and architecture of various countries up close, which he has been reading for so many years in university textbooks.

One afternoon, drinking in a London pub, Sura met a Greek man and told him that his country was her next destination. He wrote an address on a piece of paper. “Look for my friend, Haris Sevastopoulos, when you get to Greece. He will find you cheap accommodation” he told her.

So it happened. The address on the slip of paper corresponded to a family restaurant in the area of ​​the old airport, across from sandy beaches. Haris Sevastopoulos was the owner’s son, an Architecture student who only wanted to play music. Indeed he found in Sura a cheap hotel a few minutes from the beach. The next few days were full of baths, sunbathing and sightseeing in Athens for the young lady tourist.

One day she bumped into Haris who was going to his dad’s restaurant. “Do you like the Athena?” he asked her. “I have loved her,” she replied. “The day is very hot, I’m going to get my swimsuit and let’s take a bath together” he said to her and that’s how their acquaintance began. “That’s it. The relationship started immediately,” Haris tells the BBC.

Summer romance with a… inglorious ending

For the next few days they were inseparable. “We had a good time together. We shared the same sense of humor. There were so many great clubs so we went out every night and danced like crazy until the morning,” says Sura.

But Haris did not see her relationship like more than a short summer romance. And this was clearly shown in the following days when he left Sura to go on holiday with his friends in Mykonos, Kos and Corfu with the sole aim of flirting and meeting many women. “When he left I just kept going out with his friends and I went on a date with one of them,” she says. But when he returned and saw her on the motorcycle with his friend, he was disturbed. “Don’t forget,” she reminded him, “I’m just passing through.”

The next few days were full of nights out, drinking and dancing. But things were not like before, something had broken between them. Sura is gone.

The correspondence that brought them together again

A year has passed. Sura began working in Cleveland as an art therapist, using art as a creative process to improve a person’s physical and mental well-being. He corresponded with his friend Haris who had become close when he was away on holiday with his friends. One day he mentions Sura’s name, with Haris demanding to know about her. And so they started writing letters to each other for the next three years. And the letters began to have an amorous character.

“I looked forward to reading his every letter. To see how he is, how he was doing, how he felt. We said everything, we learned everything about each other” says Sura, who started collecting money to go to Greece again. “Of all the places he had traveled to this place I wanted to go back. It was hot, sunny, blue-green sea and culture. The people were amazing and the food was amazing. It was a completely different world for me, which had changed everything in me,” he says.

The return to Greece

In the summer of 1974 Sura returned to Greece and Haris picked her up at the airport. “We went straight to beach that we had taken our first bath, we dived with our clothes on. I couldn’t wait,” she says. “We were so happy to be together,” adds Haris.

Sura stayed from day one in Haris’s small apartment. Her few days of vacation turned into two months and friendship turned into love. They traveled together to Crete, Santorini, Mykonos. Haris’ worship of alcohol caused Sura to give him an ultimatum. “Sura is a very dynamic woman. He told me “either you get better or I’ll leave and go to Norway to find an old boyfriend of mine”.

When it was time for Sura to return to USA Haris wanted to go with her. There was one way to do this: get married. Sura was unsure of such a step. “We loved each other very much. But I was hesitant, I had seen many marriages fall apart and I felt a lot of anxiety to take such a step” she remembers. The solution was to leave him in Greece. And then they decided to dare the wedding.

Haris’ family reacted. His father did not want his son to leave Greece. His Christian Orthodox mother did not like the fact that Sura was not Greek and was Jewish. He ignored them both.

Sura’s mother was surprised. But she didn’t care much. The only question to her daughter was whether she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. “All I can tell you is that I love him,” Sura told her. And that was enough.

Marriage in America and Greece

After clearing the bureaucratic hurdles, Haris left for America in September 1974, with only a rucksack as luggage. Two months later they were married. The first months were not paved with rose petals. “It was different being a tourist and having a girlfriend. And another to live with her. THE Marriage he has hard work, responsibilities. You have this playful attitude, but you have to be serious about a lot of things,” says Harris.

And despite the words of a paperweight who had told him “this woman will destroy you in three months” he never turned his back on their relationship.

Two years later they returned to Greece and married again, at the request of Haris’ family. Before the Greek Orthodox ceremony, Sura was baptized. His mother was having trouble proving herself to be her daughter-in-law. Their relationship remained strained for many years. Eventually Sura wrote her a letter which was translated by Haris’ brother. “I wanted to make her understand how much we were loved. He read the letter, understood everything and from that moment we became inseparable” he says.

50 years and counting

The couple had two daughters and a grandchild. 50 years have passed since they met. Half a century of difficulties but more happy moments. They dream of taking many more trips together. “There were wounds along the way,” says Sura. “The meeting changed us both,” says Haris. Both agree that they would be completely different people if their paths had not crossed.

The secret to a happy marriage? “You have to feel life through the ups and downs, and make it better, fight for it,” he says. The key to happiness, says Sura, is “not giving up” and continuing to “believe that your love is worth something.”