Our beloved Mom passed away on Aug 20th, 2023 at approximately 5:30pm at the Hellenic Home for the Aged. Even though we knew she was going to pass it still rocked us to the core, the pain of losing our Mom is indescribable.

Amalia Kollara was born on Sept 12,1932 in a small village named Agio Sostis just outside of Tripoli Greece. She was the third child out of seven children, five sisters and two brothers. She often spoke about her life growing up in her village.
Some of her memories that she often told: Lifting her little brother on a donkey to take him to school everyday, visiting local fairs in a nearby village to celebrate a saint day then walking home in the warm summer night, all the while singing and laughing with friends and her siblings back to their village. Remembering her beloved father’s beautiful singing voice as he worked as a canter in the church, playing with her one and only doll that her mom made out of rags, attending school in the church beside her home, her secret crush of a boy in her village. All memories of a young lady.
On the opposite end, she also faced many hardships growing up in Greece. In 1939 at the age of 7, WW2 began and this was the start of extreme poverty for our mom and her family. She would tell us of the German planes that flew over her village, hiding in the church frightened when bombs would be falling from the planes. Rebels often savaged and plundered her parents crops which left them with no food to eat. Her father running away in hiding to avoid death from rebel soldiers.

She married our father, Demetre on Oct 26,1963 in Tripoli Greece and a year later welcomed their first child, Alexandra. In 1965 our parents immigrated to Montreal, Canada for a better life. They lived in Montreal for several years, where they welcomed their second daughter, Cathy. Soon after, they decided to move to Toronto and Mom gave birth to twins, a boy and girl named Frank and Helen. Mom didn’t know she would have twins until we were born and we would often laugh because she couldn’t remember who was born first.

Our Mom was full of life, strength, resilience and had an adventurous spirit. She loved to go for walks and explore the city, she loved her Greek TV shows, loved to travel and shop. She and our Father provided a good life for us, often taking us to High Park and Centre Island as children for family picnics. We owe all of our happy childhood memories to our Mom, she kept us safe and loved us very much.
As teenagers she whole heartedly welcomed our friends into her home, whether it was to just hang out, sleepovers or eat meals. She never turned anyone away and would often cook big batches of “macaronia mea keema” to feed us all. Everyone called her Ma, with lots of laughter and jokes all around. These moments were some of the best memories made.

As we grew into adults and met our spouses, she welcomed them all with open arms and often joked, “I have four children and none of them married a Greek”.

Rick, Tony, Rudy and Karen were soon welcomed in our family as our in-laws and a new chapter began in our lives.

She loved her 5 grandchildren: Gregory, Demitri, Emily, Max and Mia. They loved her very much and will forever miss their Yia Yia.

The last year of her life was extremely hard for Mom, she lost her ability to walk.
“If only I had my legs to walk” she would say “Everything would be alright”. She walked into heaven and now is pain free forever!

Watch over us Ma. We will always love you and we will be alright.

Αγαπημένη μας μαμά, σε ευχαριστούμε που μας αγαπάς τόσο πολύ θα μας λείψεις