Svetlana and Dimitris are from Russia and met the American Heidi while fighting the waves on board of the lifeboat of the sinking ship. They have been friends ever since. They came to the island of Paros this year, near which the Express Samina ferry ran on the rocks ten years ago and sank 80 people to the bottom of the sea. Relatives of the people that sank with the ship gathered at the church St. John Theologian near Korakies village on the island of Paros in the late afternoon of September 26.
The three youths who met then and have become friends on board of the boat that saved their lives arrived in Paros yesterday to pay their respect to the memory of those who perished in the shipwreck. They were onboard of the ship that fatal night ten years ago, dreaming to spend a sunny holiday on the Greek island. And now they recall that terrible night with tears in the eyes.
Heidi, painfully looking at the rocks that the ship ran on, said for Ethnos newspaper: "It was unbelievable what happened - the ship to sink to the bottom. I haven’t met Svetlana and Dimitri before. We met accidentally on the lifeboat. Then the fishermen found us and they brought us ashore on their boats. We are friends ever since. This year we came together to stand in the memory of the victims. Because we could be among those who perished too."
The girl from America remembers that everyone thought they all would die that night. But now she feels like home every time she comes to Paros. Like Heidi her Russian friends feel the people from the island incredibly close as they took care of them after the shipwreck. The three survivors shake hands with the mothers, spouses and children who have lost beloved ones in the tragic shipwreck.
The shipwreck changed the life of George Kyulafis from the island of Naxos too - he had two sons until the tragedy and then he had a daughter too – the already 13-year-old Emanuela. He was one of the shipwreck survivors ten years ago, when the ship sank. He managed to hold onto the water surface, holding a three-year-old girl in his left hand. Emanuela’s parents dropped her out of their hands while the ship was sinking but the child was saved thanks to George.
Happy that he succeeded to save the girl and he himself to survive with God's help as he says, Mr Kyulafis tells to Ethnos newspaper that: " I can not figure out even now what was that power that helped me make this superhuman effort and be able to save both of us. At the beginning the water of the sinking ship pulled me to the bottom, but I managed to jump on the surface. Bodies of the people that traveled on the board of the ship floated around me. Then I heard a baby crying. I took her in my arms and we fought four hours with the waves in the dark not knowing whether we will survive or drown both. Most of the time I was holding the child in my left hand as high as I could so that not to swallow water. Even when the brothers Michalis, Antonis and Manolis Zumis found us near Korakies, it was difficult to get us on the board of their fishing boat. Port security guards Angelos Mesolongitis and Dimitris Bisbirulas to whom I will be grateful all my life were onboard too. But finally, we managed and we got on the boat." The three-year-old then Emanuela, a daughter of Janis Skulakos, is now a student in the seventh grade and will soon celebrate her birthday.
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