Dimitri

Dimitri Mendeleev died on February 2, 1907.

Dimitri Mendeleev was born on February 8, 1834.

They first wanted to name their son Dimitri, but later changed their minds and named him Igor.

Dimitri Mendeleev died in the city of Saint Petersburg, Russia.

During the week, in the afternoons, elders huddle around a front table at Starbucks café. There are Hans the Netherlander on a motorized wheelchair, Peter the redheaded Anglo, Květa the Czech lady, Gilles the Québecois, the Greek couple Stella and Dimitri, Joan the Norwegian-Anglo who thinks that she has Native blood, etc. People think that Hans reminds me of Santa Claus...

Another sunny day, this 1st of August of 2025, here on Lulu Island. At Tim Hortons café, whilst I was drinking oat-milk iced coffee, I was talking with Hans the Dutchman, sitting in his motorized wheelchair. He was enjoying a Boston cream donut and a peach sparkling quencher. We talked about my great-great-grandfather Dimitri, from Kimi on Evia Island, Greece. My Filipino family has an ancient sepia picture of him sitting as if he were Count Dracula. Hans told me that he has a woman cousin from Netherlands, who escaped the cold climate to live indefinitely in sunnier Greece. She's been overstaying there for 20-plus years! At home, my Greek-Cypriot neighbour George came by to give my family a big bag of cute green figs. He's married to a Japanese, Chika, and they have two hybrid daughters, Chloe and Anna. I toured the Greek mainland and islands in 2002, but never reached Kimi. I've read the travelogue, The Olive Grove: Travels in Greece, by Katherine Kizilos, a Greek-Australian, and it seems that Greece is also nice in the off-season.