Looking back on a life well-lived is a luxury that comes to those lucky enough to live to a certain age. Each person has a unique story that can highlight our shared humanity, offer insights, and give us lessons on what truly matters in life.

The Life and Times of Christos J. Tsimikas: Autobiography showcases Tsimikas’ story from his birth in a village in Greece in 1935 up to the present day and is a charming, bilingual Greek-English keepsake for family members to look back on what life was like in the village and what brought Tsimikas to the United States as an immigrant. Family is at the very heart of this autobiography along with the immigrant experience. Readers will recognize the values and sentiments so many Greek immigrant families share while Tsimikas’ easy to read text brings to light specific memories from the past as he shares his reflections on life.

The National Herald also figures into Tsimikas’ story as he notes how “it may seem a little strange” for someone like him, who only completed elementary school during some of the most turbulent years in Greece’s history, to write a book. “But I think I owe that to the National Herald newspaper, which I have been reading for nearly half a century and which gave me the extra knowledge I needed,” Tsimikas writes.

“I wrote many, many letters and all of them were published free of charge by the editor of the National Herald,” he adds in the book which includes the clippings from the newspaper of many of Tsimikas’ Letters to the Editor.

Several pages of family photos, in black and white and in color, from his grandparents in 1935 in their village of Megaro, Greece, to a present-day photo of Tsimikas and Kleanthi, his wife of 63 years (soon to be 64 years on March 24) in Dracut, Massachusetts, are also included in the book as well as charts of the Tsimikas family tree and those of their relatives. It is abundantly clear that family ties are cherished and deeply valued for the author and his loved ones just as the love of the homeland of Greece is as well. Tsimikas expresses great pride in his wife, his children, and his grandchildren, and like so many proud grandparents still wishes he had even more grandchildren to dote upon.

In the acknowledgements section of the book, Tsimikas explains that “the idea for the book was not in the program” but the lockdown during COVID gave him the opportunity. “I started to writing every day from my old memories starting from the difficult years of my childhood, and I reached the age of 87,” as he turned on August 3, 2022. He thanked his niece Ariadne Kakafika for putting the book together from the text he sent her and Eleni Kalaitzoglou for translating the Greek text into English so the bilingual book would reach as many people as possible. He also thanked his son, Dr. Sotirios Tsimikas, for putting together the family tree for the book, as well as the rest of the family and all those who helped make the book possible.