Penny Vasilopolous Haramis was born on June 20, 1940 in a small village in the province of Arcadia Greece. The village is called Colina which is 40km away from the town of Tripoli. She is the youngest of 2 other siblings. She attended school after the Germans left and remembers feeling more safe walking to school each day. Since she was born in 1940, she was very young when the Germans came. She mainly gets her memories from friends, and her parents, they told her mostly everything she knows about the war. 

George Vasilopolous was born on October 23,1939 in a small village, also in the province of Arcadia Greece. The village is called Perivolia. It is in the southwestern part of Arcadia, Greece. He is an only child and spent most of his early childhood playing with his friends in the village. He had many farm animals and attended school after the Germans left Greece.

George and Penny are Crestwood grandparents who shared their stories with their grandson Austen Maras in February 2017.  Their stories encompass their early years in Greece, both during World War Two and the subsequent Greek Civil War, as well as their emigration paths to Canada and their contributions to Canada in the postwar era.