Greek-Australian author donates land to hospital in Ptoleimada, Greece

Melbourne author and retired health educationist Anastasia Gessa-Liveriadis. Photo: Supplied

Μελβούρνη.- Melbourne author and retired health educationist Anastasia Gessa-Liveriadis has donated a large plot of land to Bodosakeio Hospital in her home-town of Ptolemaida, in Western Macedonia.

According to a report by local media outlet e-ptolemeos.gr, Ms Gessa Liveriadis, expressed in a letter to the hospital’s board of directors her intention to donate a 976 square-metre plot of land to the hospital.

Ms Gessa-Liveriadis said in the letter that the land which she owned with her daughter, Lisa Elizabeth Gerevic, would be donated to the hospital for “the benefit of the residents of my hometown and surrounding area.”

“This is Anastasia Gessa, a descendant of the old family of Ioannou Gessa, widely known in the society of Ptolemaida. …Mrs. Gessa is the wife of our compatriot, also a prominent philologist, writer and school counselor in the Greek community of Melbourne, Australia, Panagiotis Liveriadis,” reported the local news outlet.

“We are particularly pleased to see that the tradition of benefactors continues in our area,” said the report.

Ms Gessa-Liveriadis was born and grew up in Ptolemaida. She went to high school there and then studied at the Athens School of Public Health to graduate in 1956 as Visiting Sister and Nurse.

She migrated to Melbourne in 1959 and went on to graduate of the College of Nursing Australia (DipNEd) and La Trobe University (Bed, Med). She devoted most of her working life to mental health nursing education. She turned to writing after she retired to write books, poems and contribute articles to magazines and newspapers.

She has won numerous awards in Greek literary competitions and won the 2008 Aggelidion Foundation Greek book of the year award for her first novel, Tasia: A Privileged Life. Her other works include “The Lace Tablecloth” and “A Lifetime in Verses 1952-20”.

S:neoskosmos.com