A World’s Citizen to always be loved and never to be forgotten
By a mother embracing the merit and mercy of a challenging world
London, 14 March 2022
“..we should be remembered for the things we do. The things we do are the most important things of all. They are more important than what we say or what we look like. The things we do outlast our mortality …” R.J. Palacio, Author
On a wonderful March 14th Day, a sweet and bright girl was born and she was meant to bring happiness, joy and new meaning in the lives of the people she met during her short, yet vivacious life.
The girl, with the vibrant personality, the adorable smile, and the sparkling eyes, was named Despoina-Raphaella, or simply Despina. Despina was a high achiever from a very early stage in her life, with a liberal spirit, passionate to offer help and goodness to others. She sprinted through her life marathon in 24 years, equipped with an incredible record of achievements, profound wisdom, and a deeply inquisitive mind. During the high school years, she was the leading debater for her school and country, the captain of the school’s debate team, an active member for her school’s Model United Nations delegation and a fine performer in the Forensics Group. She represented Greece, her home country as the 4th best ESL speaker in the World Schools Debating Championships, in Thailand in August 2014 and she got the Headmaster’s Prize for Academic Excellence in St. Lawrence College, June 2014.
As a university student, in 2017, Despina was awarded two letters of commendation for academic excellence from Durham Law School, UK she was short-listed to the top 8 law students for the Squire Patton Boggs Scholarship for Best All Speakers, and she got her MA degree (Legal Practitioner’s Course with Business) with a Distinction. She loved learning foreign languages, so she could speak Greek and English as a native speaker as well as fluent French and Spanish and basic Chinese.
She was keen to explore deep concepts of human life through her passion for philosophy and that led to her successful completion of two philosophical courses at Oxford University, namely, Introduction to Philosophy and Philosophy of Mind.
In her life Despina always related to people who care for the real essence of Values and Quality in life. Embracing the ancient Greek saying, ‘Sound mind in Sound Body’ she was always involved in sports, kickboxing was one of her favourites along with running and swimming. Despina travelled across the world with the aim to experience new cultures and lifestyles, as well as to meet new people and identify deeper aspects of her own personality through these unique life exploration activities. In summer 2015, Despina travelled to Asia and taught English to 10-year-old Chinese students in Zibo, China. In 2018 and 2019, she volunteered at a community centre in Northern Spain for 3 weeks. She also offered volunteer work at an organic farm, an earthen building centre, as well as at a seed-saving centre in rural Thailand. Moreover, she travelled solo in Southeast Asia, Nepal, and India for five months.
In her career as a lawyer, Despina worked at a multinational law firm initially in London, and from August 2019 to August 2020, during the outbreak of the Covid19 pandemic, she was transferred to the branches of HFW in Singapore and Melbourne Australia.
Despite her youth, she was always focused on the deeper exploration and development of her inner self through meditation in Vipassana Retreat in Nepal and trekking in wild places like the Cambodian jungle. She made a lot of wonderful friends and developed a true appreciation for working and building things with her hands with an aim to always create an impact for the global community.
Despina’s unique, amazing way to always make an impact on other people’s lives offering help, support and being a good listener, gradually turned her into a role model for many, yet her ambitious humanitarian aims were not to be materialised. On a dark evening of March 2021, Despina’s beautiful life journey ended abruptly. Thereafter, her long journey to eternity began.
Since then, deep grief for her loss has nested in our hearts but also pride and gratitude for having her in our lives. It is true that despite knowing that mortality is part of human nature, we find it too difficult to deal with the grief for the loss of someone we deeply love, especially if untimely gone. We cannot erase our love and we cannot get over grief. Yet, we can live through the grief, and we can turn our grief into growth.
By channelling our deep sorrow over losing a loved one into actions of love to people around us, we keep alive the legacy of our beloved one and at the same time we allow the power of true empathy to fill up our hearts with feelings of love, gratitude, and peace.
Despina’s annual celebration of life will always be a reminder and motivator for us, her people, to constantly finding rewarding ways of turning the ache in the depth of our souls into actions of kindness for people around us. This is our way of remembering and integrating our love for Despina in our lives from now on, always cherishing sweet memories of her wonderful generosity and thoughtfulness.
We are all independent personalities and serve in our individual capacity. Let us keep spreading the light of a wonderful life.
To turn our loss into something great is a best way to commemorate the life of a beloved one. We do good and that becomes part of their legacy, an extension to their life.
By a mother embracing the merit and mercy of a challenging world
