Mimis Plessas. The Creator who united all Greeks and never separated them. His work was loved by five generations. It is a great privilege for me to be able to narrate what we experienced together, but also a blessing to hear him narrate what he experienced in his childhood, adolescence, and student years in Greece and America.

The book you are holding in your hands could be described as "two books in one", with the composer's narratives blending with our common experiences. A companion-bright lighthouse, which for the past three and a half decades that I have been by his side, generously spreads its bright light to the whole world, but also its shadow to anyone standing next to it.

My choice was and is to be in its shadowy side, but to gain knowledge and strength from its light. A breath of freshness in its shadow and energy from its luminous side. And there is nothing more beautiful than this alternation. If I dedicated one of his great songs to describe him, I would borrow the lyrics of our beloved Lefteris Papadopoulos:
Everything is yours, my eyes, and your pain is mine, my eyes have seen many things in the neighborhoods of the world...

Loukila Karer-Plessa