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By Jewell Cardwell
Beacon Journal columnist
POSTED: 12:02 p.m. EDT, Jun 18, 2009
Note: This is the second in a series of columns on women turning 100.
To hear Angelike Bellios tell it, she's always been one of those sunup to sundown kind of folks.
Always busy with her hands.
Not so much in recent years, but no one is holding that against her.
After all, the Akron woman is turning 100 Saturday.
Even though she's frail and requires help around the house, she's still not one who likes to be idle.
During stronger times, well into her 80s, she participated in numerous walk-a-thons.
However, gall bladder surgery and arthritis have slowed her down in the last six years or so, she concedes.
Still she manages to prepare her own meals and plant flowers — petunias and impatiens. She regrets she no longer spreads fertilizer, mows the lawn or paints her own house.
The slower pace has given way to safer and more passive hobbies: grocery shopping and watching television; her favorite programs are The Price Is Right, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy.
The former Angelike Vasilopoulos — born June 20, 1909, in Tripolis, Greece, one of three children — married Christopher Bellios in 1927, the same year they came to the U.S. She became a naturalized citizen in 1934.
Mrs. Bellios, ever the student of history, has witnessed many inventions and appreciated most. Some she's happy about — like the washer and dryer and the microwave. Yet some annoy her, especially the cell phone. ''People are always talking into them and not paying attention to where they're going. As far as I'm concerned all they're good for are a lot of accidents,'' she bristled.
She's been a member for 82 years at Akron's Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, where she was a tireless worker at all of the bazaars since they began in the 1950s, and she's been a member of the Philoptochos Melissa Society since the 1930s.
Her devotion to the church manifests itself in myriad ways. She's made and sold lapel pins for Greek Independence Day, donating all of the profits to church every March 25 for 50 years and running.
Mrs. Bellios mostly worked in the home, making clothes for her family, and helped out in her husband's Liberty Ice Cream factory on Valley Street.
Widowed in 1957, Mrs. Bellios has witnessed 14 U.S. presidential administrations — Herbert Hoover, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Herbert Walker Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama — and too many wars: the first and second World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Her brother Nicolas was killed by the Nazis in 1943 in the Resistance in Greece. His sister learned of his demise several months later when a letter arrived, addressed to him, stamped ''deceased'' in red. It was opened by her son, Nicholas, then a sixth-grader.
In addition to Nicholas, who is a physician in Libertyville, Ill., the couple also were the parents of Aristotle Bellios (deceased). There are five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
She'll celebrate her birthday with family and friends over three days, with the main event coming Sunday at the church.
Jewell Cardwell can be reached at 330-996-3567 or jcardwell@thebeaconjournal.com.
Note: This is the second in a series of columns on women turning 100.
To hear Angelike Bellios tell it, she's always been one of those sunup to sundown kind of folks.
Always busy with her hands.
Not so much in recent years, but no one is holding that against her.
After all, the Akron woman is turning 100 Saturday.
Even though she's frail and requires help around the house, she's still not one who likes to be idle.
During stronger times, well into her 80s, she participated in numerous walk-a-thons.
However, gall bladder surgery and arthritis have slowed her down in the last six years or so, she concedes.
Still she manages to prepare her own meals and plant flowers — petunias and impatiens. She regrets she no longer spreads fertilizer, mows the lawn or paints her own house.
The slower pace has given way to safer and more passive hobbies: grocery shopping and watching television; her favorite programs are The Price Is Right, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy.
The former Angelike Vasilopoulos — born June 20, 1909, in Tripolis, Greece, one of three children — married Christopher Bellios in 1927, the same year they came to the U.S. She became a naturalized citizen in 1934.
Mrs. Bellios, ever the student of history, has witnessed many inventions and appreciated most. Some she's happy about — like the washer and dryer and the microwave. Yet some annoy her, especially the cell phone. ''People are always talking into them and not paying attention to where they're going. As far as I'm concerned all they're good for are a lot of accidents,'' she bristled.
She's been a member for 82 years at Akron's Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, where she was a tireless worker at all of the bazaars since they began in the 1950s, and she's been a member of the Philoptochos Melissa Society since the 1930s.
Her devotion to the church manifests itself in myriad ways. She's made and sold lapel pins for Greek Independence Day, donating all of the profits to church every March 25 for 50 years and running.
Mrs. Bellios mostly worked in the home, making clothes for her family, and helped out in her husband's Liberty Ice Cream factory on Valley Street.
Widowed in 1957, Mrs. Bellios has witnessed 14 U.S. presidential administrations — Herbert Hoover, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Herbert Walker Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama — and too many wars: the first and second World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Her brother Nicolas was killed by the Nazis in 1943 in the Resistance in Greece. His sister learned of his demise several months later when a letter arrived, addressed to him, stamped ''deceased'' in red. It was opened by her son, Nicholas, then a sixth-grader.
In addition to Nicholas, who is a physician in Libertyville, Ill., the couple also were the parents of Aristotle Bellios (deceased). There are five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
She'll celebrate her birthday with family and friends over three days, with the main event coming Sunday at the church.
Jewell Cardwell can be reached at 330-996-3567 or jcardwell@thebeaconjournal.com.
Comments
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mogadore, oh
Posted 07:23 PM, 06/18/2009
God Bless You dear, In my opinion you are an amazing soul.
