Leros, Day 9 and Beyond – An Epilogue

After a fitful, drunken sleep I wake up at 5.00 am feeling rough from the night before, the usual regrets attempting to claw their way in. I lie there and allow the feelings to flow. They gradually calm and eventually I manage to doze off again for about an hour. I then get up, have a shower and a cup of tea, get dressed and go off for a bit of a grouchy breakfast from the hotel buffet.

I pack up, load the car and drive off to Agia Marina to return it, which all goes very smoothly, and have a wander around until it is time to board the ferry. I settle in and feel happy and content as we head back towards Rhodes, the four hour journey slipping by pleasantly enough.

In Rhodes I find the place I am staying, which unfortunately is not in the old town this time. It is okay and clean, but that is all it is. Feeling weary from lack of sleep and the effects of the night before I find somewhere to eat and head back to my room for an early night.

The next morning I wake up reasonably early feeling somewhat forlorn, a not unexpected come down from the high of the week I have just spent in Leros. I go out in search of breakfast and feel better after a tasty cheese salad baguette and a coffee, and head back to the hotel, grab my bag and head to the airport in the pre-paid taxi that I had booked and that arrived perfectly on time.

All is grand. Everything goes smoothly at Rhodes airport, but I am now back in ‘everyday life’, feeling the wrench of having left my cosy Leros bubble. The flight is pleasant and easy, and I am gifted with having a row of seats to myself for most of it despite it being a full plane.

I am greeted by Dorothy at the airport which is lovely. We hug and I feel loved, and I feel connected. Connected to her and the wonderful life I have here. I feel blessed.

I am home, and now the journey begins, the other journey.

The journey to deeper within myself to discover what all of this means to me. To me as the man I am and the man I want to be, and the life I want to lead.

I went to Leros to find my father, and to bring him home, and that I did. But what now?

I did not go out of curiosity, simply to find out more about him. Sure, that was part of it, and I am grateful for everything I have learned. I am grateful for gaining more of a sense of who he was, and what he did during that period of his life. I am grateful for having got to know my father a little better, to feel proud of him, and for now feeling more connected with him than ever before.

No, I did not go to Leros to simply find out more about my father, I went to Leros to find out more about me.

This is where I am at now, and it is that journey, that process on which I now embark. It feels good, it feels hopeful, and it feels as though the rest of my life has just begun, and I welcome it with open arms.