A 93-year-old Greek grandmother who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for assisting refugees passed away on Sunday (March 12), as reported by the AFP.
In 2015, Emilia Kamvysi and two other elderly women shot to fame after they were seen bottle-feeding a refugee infant whose parents had just arrived on Lesbos, a Greek island, after a harrowing sea crossing.
More than a million refugees and migrants, many of whom were escaping the Syrian civil war, arrived at EU coastlines during the surge.
The funeral for Kamvysi will be held on Monday in her hamlet on Lesbos, according to the Greek national news agency ANA, which broke the news of her passing.
Emilia Kamvysi, who was 86 then was sitting on a bench along with two elderly neighbours—aged 89 and 85 then, bottle-feeding a Syrian refugee child. Photo credits: Twitter/Remei Calabuig
The other two grandmothers, Efstratia Mavrapidou in 2022 and Maritsa Mavrapidou in 2019, had already passed away.
The trio said they had done nothing extraordinary.
“What did I do, my son?” Kamvysi, famously told Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos.
In February 2016, Kamvysi, who was 86 then was sitting on a bench along with two elderly neighbours—aged 89 and 85 then, bottle-feeding a Syrian refugee child. She and the other two grannies in the picture became icons of Greek generosity to the refugees who have recently fled to Europe after the picture went viral, as reported by USA Today.
(With inputs from agencies)
