For Margarita Kindatsi there was life before and after the fire in Mati. The former Olympic Air flight attendant was a “out of heart” person. Relatives remember her loud laughter, gatherings that she arranged for any occasion, how she always came to the table last, because she always cooked something else. However, after July 23, 2018, everything changed: gradual withdrawal, dramatic weight loss, fixing everyday life with coffee and cigarettes on the balcony and a closer look. It was not so much the burns on her legs, the indelible traces of the catastrophe, that defined her, but the trauma that she carried within herself for four years, mute and invisible.

On Sunday, October 9, 2022, Margarita Kindatsi passed away after several weeks of hospitalization. He was 69 years old. “I tried to remember our daily life before the fire, and it was difficult for me to express my memories of what our life was like,” her daughter Eva Shiganaki tells K. She has just returned from the Ritson crematorium, when we meet her, her mother wanted her to be taken there, not buried. “She was very sociable, she liked to have fun and break dishes,” he recalls. “Her friends who came to the funeral said she was an open-minded woman, her mentality was a bit ahead of her time.”

Margarita Kindatsi was born in 1953 in Athens and grew up in Lycabettus, in a house where her extended family shared the yard with many uncles and cousins. Before working at Olympiaki, she opened a clothing store, and after retiring, she was engaged in decorating, making flower arrangements, she wanted to do something creative.

Her relatives, along with other members of the Union of Mountaineers and Naturalists, bought in 1952 a 14-acre plot of land in Mati, on a hill called the Jungle, about half a kilometer from the sea. There they built a camp with 30 wooden houses to spend their weekends and summers. The Kindatsi have taken root in the area. Later, she and her husband bought a house in Mati.

The fire found her in this camp along with relatives and friends. Escape through the main entrance was impossible. They got into the car, drove up a steep slope in search of another way out of the estate, but their car got stuck in a ditch. Mrs. Shiganaki describes the scene as told to her by other witnesses. Her mother was unable to get up from her seat, became disoriented, possibly due to smoke inhalation, and passed out. She was found lying on her back, her body inside the car, her legs sticking out of the half-open door and resting on the hot earth. One of her brothers found water in the faucet, which was still running, and pressed a wet towel against her face. Her body became as heavy as a pencil and they couldn’t lift her until she regained consciousness.

She arrived at Evangelism many hours later with thermal burns covering 15% of her body, from her thighs to her toes. She was operated on seven days later and her hospital stay exceeded one month. “He was confused the first time in the hospital. They explained to us that this was due to smoke poisoning, that she had something like delirium, a psychotic episode, ”says her daughter. “After 20 days, he began to blur, better communicate, remember.”

“Margarita was a different person after the fire. Her mentions of the Eye were minimal, she got past him very quickly, she kept him inside.”

Since then, Mrs. Shiganaki noticed the first signs of denial in her mother’s behavior. Refusal to try to get out of bed, do exercise therapy, eat. “It was somewhere between fear and resignation, psychological and definitely related to the traumatic event,” he says. This was followed by a month and a half stay in a rehabilitation center. There she met more functional and younger people, and her image improved somewhat. “He could communicate, he could joke. It was then that the sociability of her character manifested itself, ”she emphasizes. Physiotherapy continued when he returned home. It took him about seven months to take his first independent steps in the neighborhood, to take care of himself, albeit slowly.

The morning after the deadly fire, mental health professionals from non-governmental organizations rushed to Mati’s place to provide psychological first aid. They tried to reduce the acute state of stress or sadness through active listening. They roamed the neighborhood, going door to door looking for victims, and in some cases identified people who were likely to be showing signs of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), such as nightmares, interrupted sleep, and intense reliving. event during the day. Some of the experts who spoke to K at the time explained that it is not necessary that everyone directly exposed to images of the disaster develop similar symptoms.

On the day of the fire, Dimitris Philippis was with Margarita Kindatzis and other relatives in the camp. He rushed to call for help, but the flames overtook him. He spent 78 days of repression in the intensive care unit “Evangelization” and stubbornly fought for recovery. “Margarita was a different person before and after the fire,” he says. “Her mentions of the Eye were minimal, she got over it very quickly, she kept it inside.”

Antonis Kyriakopoulos, Evangelismos plastic surgeon, was one of the members of the medical team that welcomed burn victims to the hospital, and they performed 39 surgeries in the first two weeks after the fire. “All the patients had a psychological shock, some never recovered. The scale of the destruction created the worst mental background for these people,” he says, citing an example from the war: It is different when a soldier is injured in a random incident compared to someone who survives on the battlefield from a destroyed platoon.

Marina Karida and Alexis Andronopoulos volunteered to side with about 60 severely burned victims from East Attica in an attempt to fill the gaps in public post-hospital care at the time. In 2021, they created the Sage organization, which aims to prevent burns and support burns. Among the patients they met in Mati was Kindatsi.

“Obviously you will never be the same again,” says Mr. Andronopoulos. “The burn has been following you for many years. Imagine being unable to sleep at night due to itchy, healing skin. Think of the horror they experienced at the time, the pain they feel.” In addition to the injuries, victims of the East Attica fire have to deal with feelings of anger and abandonment. “You feel pain, you carry the burden of helplessness,” says Ms. Karida.

Margarita Kindatsi consulted specialists, but this did not seem to radically change her condition. After the second anniversary of the disaster, her image deteriorated. Her cousin Mina Tsolaki says he urged her to talk to a psychologist. “I have friends, I can tell them there. I know I’m depressed, but I’m fighting it,” he told me,” she recalls.

He gradually reduced the amount eaten to a minimum. “She was a woman who loved to cook, shop at the market, and she had stacks of recipes in her house,” Ms. Shiganaki says of her mother. “After July 23, 2018, her thinking changed, the way she thought, her smile. I realized that for the past four years he had been laughing automatically, as if he were somewhere else, unable to feel joy. I’ve had many years to hear her laugh, loud. Each of us, in our own way, tried to mobilize her, ask for help or do other things that she likes. So much time had passed that a situation had developed in her mind, and now there was no going back.”

Her mother had a neurological syndrome called essential tremor. His hands were shaking. After the fire it got worse and he couldn’t easily lift the spoon without trembling. She was tired and saddened by this development, but that didn’t stop her from eating. According to her daughter, the doctor explained that the reason for the deterioration was mostly psychological, but her mother disagreed that this was the starting point. It was regularly tested in search of another scientific interpretation.

Malnutrition revealed other health problems over time. At the end of July, she was transferred to the hospital, first to Evangelism and then to Salvation, where she remained until her death. A few days before admission, she visited a psychiatrist, but did not have time to continue the sessions.

Matiu Margarita Kindatsi became the 104th victim of the fire for the victims of the fire. “This is a loss that cannot be directly related to the fire, but is a consequence of it. Such a disaster leaves you in great pain. It changes you, it shakes you. It hurts because you lose your friends, your home, your nature. For those who have been through it and experienced it, it left something very traumatic for them,” her daughter says. “You will never forget it. You will never forget the smell.”