(Source Telegraph Journal)
SAINT JOHN – It was Peter Rekounas’s winning smile, for sure, that stole her heart.
But Barbara (Doas), his wife of 34 years, says it took more than that to convince her to marry the former sheep herder in their native Greece in July 1974, and then to follow him to Saint John where, since 1971, he had been carving out a living as a budding chef.
“He was young, he was kind, he was honest and he was hard-working,” she said Tuesday. “That is why I trusted him to leave my home and come from Greece and start a family with him.”
Those qualities never changed, she said, not even during Rekounas’s hard-fought, 17-month battle with colon cancer, which resulted in his death, at age 59, on Oct. 14.
“What Peter passed on to me and our children was to be kind to others, because he was a kind heart,” she said. “Right up to the last minutes, that is what he told the kids – ‘be kind to each other, and to others.’ ”
Rekounas, who had learned the basics of cooking during his two years in the Greek army, spent the last 29 years of his long career as a chef at The Mediterranean Restaurant on Rothesay Avenue.
Restaurants he worked at early on included the Venus, Carmen’s, the Belmont and Dianna’s.
“He loved his work, but he was also very happy when his kids were coming home, when the family were around,” said Barbara, who herself worked as a hostess and cashier at The Mediterranean for 17 years. “As soon as he came home and saw the family all together, it brought a smile to his face – even if he was tired.”
Panagiotis (Peter) Rekounas was born in Greece on Dec. 6, 1948. He was predeceased by his parents and two brothers.
Besides his wife, his survivors include one son, Gregory of the Kingston Peninsula; one daughter, Vasiliki, or “Vicky” Zacharia, of Toronto; one grandson, Alexander, on whom he doted; and one brother and three sisters, back in Greece.
The Millidgeville resident was a member of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church.
He used to follow harness racing. And, “if he ever saw a farm with animals, he would visit that,” said Barbara. “His good friend Paul Daeres, who grew up in the same small Greek village, had a farm in Westfield and he liked to visit on weekends whenever he could.”
Son Gregory remembers his father as “a bit a jokester, prankster, but a hard worker, too.
“It was all about family,” he added. “He didn’t see any rewards for himself. It was his kids, his wife, that type of thing. “¦ He was very supportive.”
