Within the sundrenched summer season of 1971, Sura Crutch, a fresh graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Art, headed to Europe for three months.
Sura travelled around Italy, France, Germany and the Netherlands, soaking up the art work, architecture and sculptures she’d spent years poring over in books.
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She travelled with a college buddy, and the two linked with diversified travellers along the style, taking half in, as she locations it, “the ride of being valid a younger hippie hitchhiking through Europe”.
“There were so many folks then,” Sura tells CNN Trail.
One evening, drinking in a London pub, Sura purchased talking to a man from Greece and talked about Athens used to be her next conclude. In response, the man scribbled down an address on a portion of paper.
“Detect up my buddy Haris Sevastopoulos have to you salvage there,” he said. “He’ll get you a low price resort.”
Sura used to be travelling around Europe post college when she met Haris in Greece. Credit score: CNN/ Sura SevastopoulosThe address become out to be a diminutive, family restaurant shut to what used to be then Athens’ vital airport.
The restaurant used to be all the intention throughout the avenue from a stretch of sandy beach, bordered by cerulean blue waters.
Haris Sevastopoulous used to be the son of the restaurant owner. He welcomed Sura and her buddy, exuding a friendly, laidback self belief. Haris educated Sura he used to be practising to be a naval architect, but all he wanted to fabricate used to be play song.
As promised, Haris stumbled on the two People someplace to preserve. The resort used to be filled with Greek naval officers, and a bit lag down, but seconds from the beach.
Sura spent the following couple of weeks swimming, sunbathing and exploring Athens. She didn’t execrable paths with Haris, who used to be holed up looking out to scrape through his final assessments.
Then within the future, Haris used to be heading out of his dad’s restaurant when he spotted Sura, wrapped in her towel and making her technique to the beach.
“Hi,” he said, catching up along with her. “How manufacture you adore Greece to this level?”
Sura furthermore fell in admire with Greece. Credit score: CNN/ Sura Sevastopoulos“I uncover it irresistible,” said Sura.
“ what, it’s so sizzling. Let me rush all the intention throughout the avenue and salvage my bathing suit and are accessible be half of you,” Haris suggested.
Seconds later, the two had been jumping within the sea, splashing the chilly water on every other, laughing.
“That used to be it. The relationship started straight,” Haris tells CNN Trail.
Summer season romanceOver the following five days, Haris and Sura grew to alter into inseparable.
“We had been valid having fun together,” says Sura. “We had the identical sense of humour, so we could per chance play within the water and crack jokes and comprise an even time.”
After spending all day on the beach, the two would preserve out all evening dancing.
“There were dance clubs with blues and underground song, and they had been amazing,” says Sura. “So he and his chums and I extinct to switch to those every evening, and dance and rush crazy.”
While Haris and Sura had been taking half in every other’s company, neither observed the relationship as more than a vacation dash.
This used to be crystallised the following week when Haris went off to the Greek islands with a buddy of his, hoping to flirt with vacationers. This used to be one thing of a tradition for the two chums, they’d bewitch the ferry to Mykonos or Kos or Corfu for a few days every summer season. Even supposing he’d met Sura, Haris decided to switch anyway.
Neither Haris or Sura observed their relationship as serious. They parted methods on the end of the summer season and Sura went attend to the US. Credit score: CNN/ Sura Sevastopoulos“When he left, I valid kept going out with the chums,” says Sura. “And then I started seeing one of his chums.”
When Haris returned and observed Sura on the attend of this buddy’s bike, he used to be pissed off.
Sura valid rolled her eyes. Haris used to be the one who’d left her. Apart from, she used to be heading dwelling in a few days.
“I’m valid passing through,” she reminded Haris.
Haris and Sura went out together on the final evening of Sura’s time out, but one thing had soured between them.
“It wasn’t what it extinct to be for the five honest days we spent together,” recalls Haris this day.
The next day, Sura left.
Pen chums A year passed. Sura started working as an art therapist in Cleveland. Haris persevered pushing attend towards the expectation that he’d change into a naval architect, or exercise over his father’s restaurant.
Sura had stayed in contact with the man she’d gotten along with after Haris, and they’d written a few letters backward and ahead between Ohio and Greece. Sooner or later, Haris’ buddy talked about this correspondence to Haris.
“How’s she doing?” requested Haris, who continually stumbled on himself wondering regarding the American lady from the summer season sooner than.
The buddy passed on the address, suggesting Haris write to Sura and uncover for himself.
Sura used to be surprised to hear from Haris, but she wrote attend, telling him what she’d been up to over the last year.
These letters kickstarted a pen pal friendship that spanned the following three years.
The pair grew to alter into pen chums for three years. Credit score: CNN/ Sura SevastopoulosAnd as time passed, Sura and Haris’ letters grew to alter into longer and more intimate.
The tip result, notify Haris, used to be they grew to alter into “honest chums,” and realized “to respect every diversified’s desires and strategies”.
“We purchased to understand every diversified effectively,” has the same opinion Sura.
“I couldn’t wait to read what he used to be doing, how he used to be feeling. It used to be a terribly shut friendship. We would listing every diversified the whole lot.”
Sura started saving up money to come attend to Greece. Partly, as a result of she wanted to ticket Haris once more, and partly as a result of she wanted to ride Greece once more.
“Of all the locations that I had travelled, that used to be the region I valid wanted to be once more,” she says. “It used to be warm, and sunshine, and azure blue skies, and azure, blue, turquoise sea, and valid diving off rocks and issues like that, and ruins.
“And the people had been fabulous – and the food used to be fabulous. It used to be a whole diversified world for me, which had changed the whole lot in me.”
Return to GreeceIn summer season 1974, Sura returned to Athens. Haris picked her up from the airport. The two went straight to the beach where they first swam together.
“We went – with out even talking – straight within the water with our attire on,” recalls Haris.
“I couldn’t wait,” says Sura.
“We had been so happy to be together,” says Haris.
By then, Haris used to be residing in a cave-like condominium constructed into the Athenian hillside, along with his brother. Sura stayed there for 2 months, and he or she and Haris translated their pen pal friendship into a real romance.
They loved exploring Greece together, visiting the islands of Crete, Santorini and Mykonos.
Sura and Haris had been reunited in Greece in 1974. Credit score: CNN/ Sura SevastopoulosIt wasn’t all serene crusing. It used to be obvious to Sura that Haris drank too powerful, and at one level she gave him an ultimatum.
“Sura is a if truth be told dynamic lady,” recalls Haris. “She said, ‘Both you enhance or I’m going to ticket one other boyfriend in Norway.’”
When the time came for Sura to come attend to the US, she and Haris started wondering if Haris could per chance rush along with her. A assembly on the US embassy made distinct there used to be only one real technique to style this occur. Sura and Haris would comprise to salvage married.
At the beginning, Sura wasn’t convinced this used to be a valid belief.
“We if truth be told loved every diversified,” she says. “I valid – I was very hesitant about marriage, as a result of I’d seen too many marriages spoil up, and I wasn’t anxious to switch into it.”
But the choice used to be leaving Haris within the attend of, indefinitely. After a prolonged evening discussing their choices, Sura and Haris decided to present marriage a shot.
Sura and Haris purchased married in Sura’s dwelling metropolis of Cleveland, Ohio. Credit score: CNN/ Sura SevastopoulosThe next roadblock used to be their fogeys. Haris’ father wanted him to preserve in Greece. Haris’ Orthodox Greek mother didn’t like that Sura used to be American and Jewish. Haris no longer eminent them both.
Meanwhile, Sura’s mother used to be stunned on the premise of her daughter returning from her travels with a fiance.
“Is that this any individual you admire and are looking out to utilize the the relaxation of your existence with?” she requested Sura.
“All I will be able to listing you is that I love him. I will be able to’t listing you regarding the the relaxation of my existence,” replied Sura.
Her mother conceded that used to be valid ample.
“Nobody else said that,” says Sura this day. “Each person else thought I was fully out of my thoughts.”
There were bureaucratic complications too. Haris used to be Greek, but he’d been born in Turkey. He hadn’t claimed Greek or Turkish citizenship, as he didn’t are looking out to fabricate defense force provider in both nation.
Settling within the USEventually, the couple navigated the sorts. Sura went on ahead, after which Haris moved to the US in September 1974. He arrived without a baggage beyond the apparel on his attend. Haris and Sura married two months later, in her dwelling metropolis of Cleveland. Sura wore a flower crown and a prolonged white costume with billowing bell sleeves. Haris wore white too. Sura took Haris’ ultimate title, turning into Sura Sevastopoulos.
It used to be an interfaith marriage ceremony, incorporating both Haris and Sura’s non secular backgrounds and cultural traditions. There were sections of the provider in English, Hebrew and Greek.
The early months of Sura and Haris’ marriage weren’t continuously easy, and the couple continually argued.
“It’s diversified to be a tourist and comprise a lady friend. And it’s one other thing to are residing together always,” says Haris.
“The real fact sinks in that there is a style of onerous work, responsibilities. And, , you proceed to comprise that sportive feeling. But you furthermore comprise to salvage inquisitive about serious issues.”
Sura and Haris had an interfaith marriage ceremony, incorporating English, Hebrew, and Greek. Credit score: CNN/ Sura SevastopoulosHaris furthermore kept recalling an interplay he’d had on a ship that summer season. En route to 1 of the Greek islands, a fellow passenger had equipped to listing Haris’ fortune, and he’d humoured her. Then the fortune teller pointed at Sura and said, in Greek, “This lady will slay you internal three months.”
Haris had brushed it off, and hadn’t educated Sura. But the phrases would dangle-out him unimaginative at evening, especially when the couple fought.
But even after their bitterest arguments, the two continuously made up. The date the fortune teller pinpointed came and went, and Sura and Haris remained solid.
Practically two years later, the couple purchased married once more in Greece on the quiz of Haris’ fogeys. This ceremony took region in Athens, followed by a reception at Haris’ father’s restaurant on the cruise.
Sooner than the Greek Orthodox ceremony, Sura used to be baptised.
“My Jewish mother had issues about (the baptism), but did now not are looking out to mess one thing up for us,” recalls Sura.
“If my daughter is Jewish, and he or she is getting baptised in a Greek Orthodox Church, what does that style her?” Sura’s mother requested a Cleveland-essentially essentially based Greek Orthodox priest.
“I bet that makes her a Greek Orthodox Jew,” said the priest.
That they had a 2d wedding ceremony in Greece a few years later, and furthermore welcomed two children. Credit score: CNN/ Sura Sevastopoulos“Oh, valid, as prolonged as we are adding into and no longer elimination, I’m comely with it,” said Sura’s mother.
By then, Haris’ father had come to phrases along with his son transferring to the US and he and Sura had grown shut.
But Haris’ mother quiet hadn’t authorised Sura. Practically two years in, this used to be much less thanks to faith, and more thanks to their diversified personalities.
“She used to be very subservient along with his father. And she valid couldn’t realize why I couldn’t manufacture that with Haris,” says Sura.
This relationship remained strained for a whole lot of years, but finally the two women folks linked.
“I wrote a terribly prolonged letter to her that his brother translated, as a result of she if truth be told couldn’t realize who I was all those years. And I wished her to realize, and I wished her to realize that we had been happy, and here’s what her son wanted,” says Sura.
“And she heard the whole lot in that letter. And valid incredibly, we grew to alter into inseparable after. It used to be doubtlessly the most fabulous, loving relationship.”
The couple had been pleased to be together, but it took them a whereas to make a choice into married existence. Credit score: CNN/ Sura Sevastopoulos50 years and countingIn subsequent years, Sura and Haris welcomed two daughters and constructed a existence together within the US. Sura persevered working within the art world, whereas Haris pursued song and furthermore works in building.
It’s now been over 50 years since Sura and Haris first met in Greece. Over the last five an extended time, the couple comprise experienced incredible joys – just like the birth of their children and grandchild, and travels together all the intention throughout the globe.
They’re quiet dreaming of future adventures together.
“If we had been in a negate, I judge we would utilize the time we’ve got left valid visiting locations we’ve never been,” says Sura.
The couple has furthermore long gone through tricky cases, including facing sickness and bereavement, and sessions where the relationship has been stretched and challenged.
“There are wounds along the style,” says Sura.
The pair has been married for 50 years and counting. Credit score: CNN/ Sura SevastopoulosReflecting on their existence together now, the couple notify they’ve “shared 50 years of evolving together.”
Assembly in 1971, “changed both of us,” says Haris. They both judge they would comprise change into very diversified people had they no longer crossed paths.
And so they roll their eyes when diversified older couples imply the secret to a prolonged marriage is now not struggling with.
“With out arguments you don’t develop very powerful,” says Sura.
“You’ve purchased to truly feel existence, throughout the usaand downs, and kind it greater, battle for it,” provides Haris.
The key to happiness, says Sura, is “no longer giving up,” and continuing to “mediate that your admire is price one thing”.