A Brave Traveler

Photo by Ed Hall

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Photo by Ed Hall

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(Unless otherwise noted, the Kathryn Tucker Windham blog is written by her children, Ben Windham and Dilcy Windham Hilley.)


I’ve just returned from a trip to Greece, the second time I’ve visited that amazing country.


My first visit was in 1963 when Mother decided it was a good time to take her three children to Europe. To finance the trip, she had saved my daddy’s life insurance money for seven years after he died. She said Daddy had wanted to take us all on a big family vacation once we got old enough to appreciate it, but he didn’t live that long.


The Windham family were the only guests on a freighter leaving the Mobile port to deliver blankets to the Greek army. We had small double cabins but spent very little time in them. The sea was our playground.


It was a magnificent summer spent in Greece, Italy and Turkey. I look back and marvel that my mother had the courage in that day and age not only to travel to Europe but also to take along three children.


As I looked at the Acropolis now being carefully restructured, I remembered clambering all over it as a 10-year-old. It’s off limits now. Tourists like me did too much damage to the structure. But Athens now has the impressive Acropolis Museum, preserving the ancient statuary and artifacts from weather and pollution.


It was a very different visit this time. I searched for the charming little Athens hotel we stayed in in 1963 but found no sign of it. I suppose it’s long gone. But my memories of that magical summer are still intact. I think Mother would like that.