Danny Alvo's wedding

This picture is taken on Danny's wedding with Rika Romano in Tel Aviv. Ziva is first from right, seated.

On her left side is Rachel, Marcel's daughter. Rachel and Ziva had almost the same age. Danny is fourth from right, seated.

Next to him (third from left, seated), is his wife, Rika. Next to Rika, second from left, seated, is her mother Elen Romano and then first from left, seated, Rika's grandmother. Rika's grandmother was a wonderful lady who was born in Izmir and spoke fluent Greek.

First from left, standing, is Renee's (Marcel's wife) brother. On the other side, first from right is Renee, Marcel's wife. Renee's brother later got married to Lily, Rika's sister.

On the third row, standing, was Michel Gattegno, Yvonne's first husband. Yvonne was saved thanks to him, because he was a Spanish citizen. Next to him is Pnena.

In front of Pnena, on the second row, eighth from left, is Marcel. Next to Marcel is Yvonne. Dressed in white is Rachel-Mary who leaves in Athens.

Rachel is my cousin's Nikos sister, that is uncle Daniel's daughter. She had come with me in the wedding. We called her Mary, because that was her name during the Nazi occupation when she was hiding.

Next to her, fifth from right, standing, is uncle Joseph. Next to uncle Joseph, fourth from right, standing is a second cousin of ours, Nika, formerly Zadok.

Fourth from left, standing, is Rika's father, Haim Romano. I am seventh from left, standing. Next to me, sixth from left, is Lily, Rika Romano's sister.

Danny got married to her after Rika's death. Fifth from left, leaning forwards is Rika's brother, Maurice.

My brother's wedding was completely unexpected. He had gone to Tel Aviv to arrange some economic issues of us with my uncle. They arranged a meeting of Danny with his future first wife.

My brother liked her and things moved on quite quickly. Suddenly he returns home, where I still lived with my grandmother. He says to me, I got engaged in Israel and I will get married before Christmas. He went in September 1950 and at Christmas time there was the wedding.

His wife was still serving in the Israeli army. Her name was Sarah Romano, but everyone called her Rika. Her parents were from Thessaloniki and had left during the Nazi occupation as we had done too.

Through Euboea etc., they went and stayed in Israel, and didn't come back. They had relatives there and relatives in Izmir. By that time, Rika's father was quite old to go back and start a new business. So they stayed there.

Rika Romano was born in Thessaloniki as was her sister Lili. She died in 1978 in Canada. When she fell sick, Danny took her to Canada, to the Royal Hospital. She endured for three weeks. Then she fell unconscious for another three weeks. And in the end, Danny said that it was no use keeping her alive.

Danny went to Canada in 1951, a month after I got married. He left from Greece because of this great fear that Greece might fall into the Eastern block.

Our fear was that we would have a more difficult time if the form of government changed because we were traders. We thought we might as well have another foot somewhere else.

That was the reason that Danny left. His wife was already pregnant and we thought that it was best to give birth in a country more…. As soon as he got there Danny got a Canadian citizenship, without loosing his Greek one.

Danny stayed in Canada for 20 years. He didn't have much luck there. His job didn't go well there, he was getting very tired and so he came back. He came back in 1970 and around eight years later, he lost his wife.

From the moment that Danny returned to Greece in 1970 he came to work in our business. For me, this was a great relief because until then, I had to face our uncles all alone. He had a very organizing spirit. That's why he didn't succeed there. He had a retail shop there and he couldn't manage it.

Danny had three children. Peter, who died when he was 52 years old. The second one Jack lives in Toronto and has three children with his wife. He is married with a German, which is strange. I had asked Danny, "how did you face each other when you first met her parents?" He replied, "

At the beginning we were a bit funny towards each other". His third son Robert married with a French-Canadian. They have a daughter together. They split up afterwards, but he sees her every now and then.