A Foreign Wife
An Australian Writes of the Pleasures and Perplexities of Family Life in the 'Small Quiet World' of a Greek Village
'In 1969 we bravely organised two weddings. An Orthodox ceremony was then a legal requirement of the Greek State, but I wanted some English spoken over me as well. The first service passed in a sort of blur. Too late I realised that my squarish veil arrangement was not suited to the wearing of crowns...and I became rather confused about kissing hands and books... A short time later I walked down a familiar fleur-de-lis carpet towards a Presbyterian minister who welded familiar words and music into a brief service of blessing. It was George's turn to be confused.' Gillian Bouras is an Australian married to a Greek. From the ambiguous position of a foreign wife, she writes of life in a Greek village. Her fellow villagers fondly regard her, the migrant in their midst, as something of a curiosity. They, in turn, are the source of both her admiration and her perplexity.