My great-grandmother, Linnie, was born in the United States in 1901. Her family name was Meddings. She married Pete Contogeanes, of Greek origin, and every year they would travel back to Athens, Greece — and, as Linnie would say, “to what’s left of Rhodes.” She never called it simply Rhodes, but always what was left of Rhodes.Linnie would braid bread, light olive oil lamps before sunset on Fridays, and prepare spiced Greek dishes and desserts on special days.Claude found a 1948 library card from Rhodes in the name of Kontoyiannis, which suggests that Pete might have had relatives there whom they visited before the war — and that they had befriended some of the Rhodeslis during those earlier trips.Linnie’s daughter, my grandmother, used to hum an unusual tune while telling stories of Spain, Rhodes, and a ship bound for Seattle — and of a friend who “disappeared onto the train.” It seems likely that this friend was deported, and that Linnie, though not Jewish herself, began lighting olive oil lamps and braiding bread in her friend’s memory who taught her the melody — preserving, through those gestures, the echoes of a life and friendship that had been lost.