Haroula Guido, a beloved mother, loving grandmother and great-grandmother, devoted sister and friend, died at home on December 20, 2024, surrounded by love. She was 89.

On September 17, 1935, in a small village outside of Kalavryta, Greece, a flame emerged, and her name was Haroula. She was a feminist before her time.

At 15, the small village in the Peloponnese region of Greece could no longer hold her ambitions. She traveled to Athens and walked into the biggest, fanciest hotel she could find — the Hotel Grande Bretagne — where she lied about her age, secured a job, and worked in a variety of positions until she made enough money to afford passage on a ship to the United States in 1963, with her younger brother Nicholas by her side.

She often told a story of looking at the sky from her village in Greece and knowing she was destined for more and often feeling there would be daughters in her future who would be strong enough to do anything. Her passage to the States was her first step in realizing that vision.

When she first arrived in the U.S., she worked as a nanny for a wealthy family on Park Avenue in New York City. She saw the job posting in the classified ads of the New York Times, and although she was just learning English, she made a good impression and was offered the job. The lady of the home wanted to make sure she understood one caveat: when she was with the children, Haroula could come and go through the home's front entrance. But when she arrived and left the residence, she was to use the servant's entrance.

"So, you trust me to take care of your children, but I'm not good enough to come in the front door," Haroula asked the woman, through broken yet determined English. "I don't want to work for you." The lady immediately relented, and Haroula worked for that family until she was married in December of 1966.

When she met John Guido in New York City in the mid-1960s, she found in him a ready-made family. John was a widower with three small children – John, Lauren and Joanne. After they married, two more daughters – Michelle and Maria – came along. The Guido family moved to San Jose, California in 1978 and within days, Haroula began working at a Greek restaurant called Zorba's, which became her home away from home for 25 years.

Inside the walls of that restaurant – complete with Greek columns out front and statues from Greek mythology behind the bar – there was no question that Haroula was in charge, even though she was a waitress, and not the owner. She would glide from table to table, taking dozens of orders, never writing anything down and never delivering the wrong cocktail or entree. She would proudly tell stories of customers "waiting to be in Haroula's section, please."

Haroula was fierce in all things, but above all in her love for family — both biological and chosen. It was not uncommon to find friends gathered around her table, drinking greek coffee, telling stories and laughing into the night. She saw every holiday as a chance to open up her home and add a seat to a table for someone who didn't have a family of their own to celebrate with. Dozens of people called Haroula Guido "Mom," and she'd never have it any other way. She loved regaling people with stories, and she did it so well.

And the storytelling never ended. Even in recent years, a time when many elderly people lose some of their memory, she was sharp as a tack. She could tell the same stories, 20 years apart, and never forget the most minute details. She was funny and she never held her tongue. She was also a fierce advocate for all human beings, human rights and love in all forms.

Haroula had great faith – and also a great belief in her own powers. She believed that through talking directly to God, and lighting many, many thousands of candles over her lifetime, that she could protect those she loved. We believed it, too.

Her daughter Maria wrote so beautifully about that in the last days of Haroula's life.

"My mom has been lighting candles for me for the past 51 years and I've never questioned for a moment that it's the reason that my path has been touched with light, even though I've made so many bad decisions, traveled to so many unsafe places and wandered down the streets with the kind of courage and lift of my chin that comes from a life of knowing that you've been shrouded in safety; buffered by the power of a little Greek woman who lights a candle.

Now I have to be the keeper of the candles, and I have to believe that when I light one everything will be okay."

Haroula is survived by her children: daughter, Maria Guido, her husband Leonard Taylor and their three children, Lucien, Francesca and Misa; daughter Michelle Guido and her husband Todd Stewart; son John Guido, his wife Pranee and their two children, Kristina Guido and Christopher Guido, and Chris' wife Patricia and children Damian, Nicolas and Anastasia; daughter Lauren Guido and her wife, Wendee; daughter Joanne Gregory, her husband Paul and their children and grandchildren; and her sister Antonia Kontessis of Athens, Greece.

She will be buried in New York, next to her brother.