Sophia Santorineos’ journey began in Athens, Greece, on the blessed Christmas Day of 1928, and gracefully came to a close in Toronto, Canada, on the 23rd of November, 2025. She lived a full life, rich in days, but filled with unwavering faith in her Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Sophia embarked on her earthly walk alongside her beloved parents, Olga and Anastasios Proussaliadis, as well as her cherished older brothers, Michael, Leftheris, and Vassilis, and eventually became a big sister to her much younger brother, Efthimis. While Sophia grew up in a loving family, her earliest years were still difficult, enduring poverty, the loss of her father and eldest brother, Michael, during the Second World War, and seeing her other older brothers taken away and forced to work in Germany for the duration of the war.
Despite challenges, Sophia learned to use her hands skillfully, helping her mother to sew for other women in the neighbourhood to supplement the family income. In 1959, she married Panagiotis Santorineos. While their life together began in Athens, they (and Sophia’s mother, Olga) followed in the footsteps of her dear brother Efthimis by moving to Toronto in 1968. There, they became active church members, helping to foster Sophia’s deep faith and fervent prayer life.
In the tapestry of her life, the skills Sophia learned in Greece proved useful in Canada where she worked for many years as a seamstress. Her real passion lay elsewhere, however. Having no children of her own, she loved nothing more than to dote on the niece and nephews she had close by—Ethimis’s children—whom she treated as her own. When she wasn’t sewing suits and dresses for them to wear, she was cooking for them, becoming particularly well known for her French fries, spanakopita, and tzatziki. She would cook for them, play with them, take them out, and care for them, creating memories they will always treasure.
With her husband, Panagiotis, she would travel to Greece each summer reconnecting with her older brothers and her nephews there too.
While she was always especially close to her brother Efthimis, Sophia drew even closer to him after the death of her husband Panagiotis in 2014. In her later years, as dementia took its toll, Ethimis, and his wife Maria, remained by her side to ensure all her needs were met.
Sophia will be remembered as a woman who fought the good fight, finished the race, and kept the faith. Now, she awaits the crown of righteousness from her Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.