Monday, June 8, 2020
I pray for the eternal memory of the soul of Fr. Daniel whom I was honoured to call my mentor and friend in the late Eighties and early Nineties when we were studying at the University of Athens. Fr. Daniel was also my neighbour, for his cell at the Church of the Ascension was only up the hill from my apartment. I remember, with great fondness, our talks late into the night on theology, our faith and the world. Fr. Daniel taught me more during those evenings than I learned during four years of theological studies and I am grateful to him and to our Lord who brought us together where I was able to learn so much. That time in Athens with him was seminal to my intellectual development, but also to my spiritual development as a believing Orthodox Christian.
In later years we both ended up back home in the United States. I picked him up at the airport and drove him down to his mother's place in Pennsylvania. I remember with a chuckle that when he walked in the door, after ten years, his mother was on the phone and said to her friend , ' oh, Danny's home, " as if he had just come home from school rather than be absent for ten years. His mother made us a great meatloaf that night!
When I married, Fr. Daniel officiated, and as newlyweds we even visited him during our honeymoon. When I went back to Europe to become and opera singer, Fr. Daniel let me keep my grand piano at his house in Geneva, New York for several years. It took up half his living room, but he never complained. Later when he moved to Kansas, we lost touch a bit, but I have kept him in my prayers.
He was a man of great faith and truly believed in the Resurrection and the promise of eternal life that our Lord, Jesus Christ promises to all believers. I mourn that he is gone from us but rejoice that he has joined Christ.
Damon N. Ploumis
Weimar, Germany
