"Call me when you arrive"

Parents of missing children in Tempi are waiting to be called and told: “I’m fine, I’ve arrived, come get me.” Unfortunately, they will never hear these words again…

First, a personal story: On Monday morning, I drove my son, a 17-year-old boy, to the airport to go on a trip abroad with the school. I told him: “When you arrive, call or write to me.”

This is a feeling that only a parent can experience, no matter how many years have passed, even if the child is no longer in adolescence, but has become a student, adult or middle-aged man. Mother and father always remember their child wherever he goes, and always ask him: “Call me when you arrive” …

And he gets angry, looks at you with slight irritation: “Well, father, what will happen to me?” And this is normal, because all children behave this way, so did we …

“Call me when you arrive” is a phrase that now haunts Greek society, because it was the one that was spoken by many of the parents of those unfortunate children who died in Tempi.

They never got a call. They never got a message. Phones do not ring or answer almost two days after the unspeakable tragedy. And some parents keep calling, keep hoping. Even if deep down they know that no one will answer them.

“Call me when you arrive, please write to me.” How many times have we warned our children, even during simple walks with friends, even on a short trip.

And the kids don’t answer. They boarded the train… and passed away. Unfairly, horribly, the flash of the explosion ended their lives. That flash we all saw in that shocking video of the two trains colliding.

Herodotus once said: “No one is so stupid as to prefer war to peace. For in peacetime children bury their parents, and in wartime parents bury their children.”

Therefore, in peacetime, dozens of families bury their children. Some won’t even be able to do it… unfortunately.

And what can you say to these parents? How can you ease their pain? How to explain to them that their children did not die because of the mistake of the head of the station? How to explain to them that this is an eternal crime that will never have a culprit? And who will be punished so that such crimes are not repeated? Who will guarantee that when our children go on a trip, they will call, write, call, write? And that they will bury their parents, and not vice versa?

The same thing happens in Greece. Right after every tragedy, we write emotional letters, weep, shudder at the details, some of us can’t sleep at night.

Fires in Elijah, Mandra, Mati, Tempi… Until when? Our country is rotting, and we are rotting with it.

After spending many days in Mati immediately after the tragedy, I thought that this event would shake our country to the core. I hoped that something would change and everyone responsible for this tragedy would take their share of responsibility. I thought that after more than 100 deaths, after an unprecedented disaster and everything that followed, we could start all over again. Unfortunately, nothing happened. We will still weep over the ashes of yet another tragedy to come.

Rest assured, we are not done with national tragedies. Days will pass and we will all forget the tragedy at Tempe. But not their parents, not their relatives. Because, as Ritsos wrote:

Translation

“Dead children never leave their homes,

they loiter about, tangled in their mothers’ skirts.

while she cooks and hears the water boil.

as if studying steam and time. Always there –

And the house takes on another sigh and splash.

like it’s slowly raining

in the middle of summer, in deserted fields.

Dead children don’t go away. They stay in the house

and prefer to play in a closed corridor.

And every day they grow in our hearts, so

that the pain under our ribs is no longer from deprivation.

“but from multiplication…”

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