On Monday, April 5th, centenarian Maria Boulas from Mascot, celebrated her 101st with family and friends.
“I feel like a girl,” she tells The Greek Herald.
Mrs Boulas immigrated to Australia from the Greek island of Samos, in 1953, with her husband Aristarchus and her two kids, John and Koula.
“We came to Australia for a better life. My husband wanted our kids to study and in Samos they couldn’t, due to his political views,” Maria Boulas told us in a recent interview.
Aristarchus, Maria’s late husband, had the opportunity to emigrate to the country under the ‘ten pound assisted passage scheme’ funded by the British and Australian governments. The program was aiming to attract more British to the country, because they were seen to be culturally close to Australians.
However, a great number of migrants from other cultural backgrounds also emigrated during this period.
Last year, Mrs Boulas was recognised for her contribution to her local community by NSW Labor politician, Ron Hoenig.
“Like so many other Greeks, Maria and her family are a great Aussie success story – they came to this country with nothing but the clothes on their back and a will to work hard. They succeeded and made a new life for themselves and their children,” said Hoenig.
Do you have a similar community story? Email us at: greek@foreignlanguage.com.au
