The Grandy Story

Hope Never Dies the Grandy story HOPE NEVER DIES the Grstady stoiy Virginia Wigan CAUX BOOKS First Published 2005 Caux Books Rue du Panorama 1824 Caux Switzerland ISBN: 2 88037 511 8 © Virginia Wigan Book design and typesetting (in Sabon llpt): Blair Cummock Cover design: Jim Sharp (Pinsharp Graphics) and Blair Cummock Printed by Kelso Graphics, Kelso, Scottish Borders IV Contents Acknowledgments 7 Preface 9 1 Early years: choice of direction 13 2 Apprenticeships: Africa and California 30 3 Paths crossing and joining 44 4 Cyprus: the background 52 5 Nicosia: 1960 61 6 'Never let Cyprus go' 77 7 Chance encounter, lifelong friendships 97 8 Islandwide 1961-63 112 9 Sunshine and deep shadow 130 10 Istanbul and Izmir 151 11 Divided island 169 12 Hope never dies 185 Bibliography 201 Index 203 Acknowledgments Marcel and Theri Grandy are among the most remarkable people I have ever met. I have known them for many years, and theirs is a story that just had to be written. The chief debt I owe is to them for their willingness to spend many hours talking to me so openly about their life experiences, their friendships and their travels and to answer every sort of ques tion I posed them, even when they were in the throes of moving house. They gave me free access to their lives, not for the first time. Likewise I am grateful to many of their friends, and mine, who filled in some of the gaps - people from Cyprus, Turkey, Lebanon, Greece, Switzerland, Britain, the United States, India and Africa. This book would not even have got started without Danielle Maillefer's original concept in Geneva and Eliane Maillefer- Stallybrass' painstaking research and gathering of material in Lausanne and elsewhere over many months. Eliane continued to put her skills as an archivist at my disposal when I became the book's author and has also acted as a sounding-board, adviser, encourager, travel agent and friend. I offer her my grateful thanks. In Britain my job has been made possible by the skill of Anne Evans, who manages the archives of Initiatives of Change and can put her hand on any document in her collec tion in what seems a matter of moments. I am grateful to Archie and Ruth Mackenzie for giving me the benefit of their experienced and considered views, to Elizabeth Locke for 8 Hope never dies helping me keep perspective as a writer, to Janet Paine and Wendy Pugh for their eagle-eyed proofreading and to Mary Lean for her incisive editing skills, all so generously made available to me. Blair Cummock's creativity has turned pages of my typing into the book you see today, complete with photos, and in Liverpool Jim Sharp's design wizardry conjured up the cover. I don't pretend to be an authority on the history of Cyprus, though I was lucky enough to visit the Grandys in Nicosia in 1977.1 have done my best to present a balanced and accurate picture of the elements involved, in order to show the back drop against which the Grandys lived their life there. The web site www.cyprus-conflict.net - with doctoral and research papers and analyses covering so many angles of the last 50 years in Cyprus - has been a source of much instruction and understanding for me, as have other documents. Any errors of explanation or interpretation are mine alone. I am just writing about it. The Grandys lived it. Ginny Wigan About the author Ginny Wigan trained as a secretary, and has worked with MRA/IofC for almost 40 years, in many parts of the world. She has combined the roles of wife and mother with being an editor, a school governor and a keen gardener. She is the author of Spin a Good Yarn and, as editor/ghost writer, has brought several other books to birth. Preface This is a story of how two people in their twenties chose to live their lives. The adventure stretches for over 50 years from the mountains of Switzerland to Africa and on to the blue waters of the Mediterranean where their unexpected three-month visit to Cyprus lasted 30 years. The Grandys' lives are a romance of constancy, service, and bubbling, good-humoured faith. They experienced some of the worst that mankind is capable of and some of the best. The story includes sunshine and shadow, the genuine seekers after truth and the pragmatic politicians, the funny side of life and things that touch the human heart. As events turned out, the thing the Grandys dedicated their lives to was very much bigger than they could ever have dreamed. Many people today know Cyprus only as a holiday desti nation - all sun and sea. But it is also an island of history, of raised and dashed hopes, of hearts and minds, where men and women experienced the whirlwind emotions of national optimism and dark despair; an island whose soil has been stained with the blood of its people, through difficulties that have defied the best efforts of the United Nations and other international organisations for over 50 years. Marcel and Theri Grandy recently revisited the island. Chatting about some of their shared experiences, a Greek Cypriot friend brought out a 1960s photo. 'Look at who is holding my baby son's hand in this picture - it is Marcel.' Deeply moved by the remembrance, this ex-freedom fighter added,'This is not just a simple snapshot - it actually 10 Hope never dies shows the whole history of our lives at that time. When our family life was in a mess nobody tried to help us, not even close family. But these two people, the Grandys, came into our lives, stretching out their hands to all of us, the whole family. They supported us and kept us on our feet.' Marcel Grandy - who offered that outstretched, supporting hand - is tall, broad-shouldered, with an easy, loose-limbed stride in his younger years. His bushy eyebrows still show the touch of red they had in his youth. His broad smile lights up his whole face, crinkling his eyes and reaching from ear to ear. A man of great personal courage, as evidenced when his own life was in danger, he is also by nature self-effacing. He sees himself as someone who builds links between people who may be able to affect their own situation for the better. His sense of humour, his active appreciation of the ridicu lous and his telling of stories make him great company. Relia bility and constancy have characterised his undertakings on the unusual course he chose to follow. His 'motor' is his faith and his life-long commitment to serve God. Theri, his wife, is an elegant, cultured and gracious hostess. A natural linguist, she is also a sensitive and understanding woman whose disarming honesty makes you feel you can talk to her about anything under the sun. Her knowledge of so many parts of the world, her appreciation of other customs and peoples and her intuitive grasp of what is going on under the surface in another person, give her both compassion and steadfastness. She could have become a prominent business woman, running her father's company. But she made a deci sion from which she has never wavered - to give her life, her will, her all to God, to be of use in his service. Through times of fear, anger, personal danger or financial insecurity she has often returned to that decision and remade it - but she has never turned away from it. I should warn those of a nervous disposition that parts of this story are quite turbulent. All of it is true. But the best 11 part is that anyone could have a story like this, if only they dared. So, just who are Marcel and Theri Grandy? This, their story, is told as far as possible in their own words, from conversations and letters. 12 Hope newer dies 1 Early years: choice of direction Marcel is the younger son of Jean Grandy, a watchmaker in the village of Fleurier, near Neuchatel in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. He was nine when his mother died suddenly and 11 when his father remarried in 1937. Financially, times were hard until his father made a career move, becoming the associate of a businessman who sold watches in Latin America. This man needed someone to take charge of the watchmaking side of the business in Switzerland while he himself travelled. Jean Grandy moved his family to rented accommodation in Neuchatel and became a manager. Marcel: It was in Neuchatel that our stepmother, Ida, became a real mother to us. Roger, my older brother, and I were young when our natural mother died, and our grandparents had filled the gap for a while. Devastated by the death of their daughter, however, they were almost too kind to us. Ida was the one who really brought a spiritual content to our lives, a much-needed discipline and purpose. My father was by no means a pagan, but her faith, companionship and sense of purpose must have meant a lot to him in our home life. For some time she had known people connected with the Oxford Group,the movement begun by Frank Buchman in the city where he had spent some of his most fruitful early years amongst students who had returned from the First World War. 13 14 Hope never dies The Oxford Group, and its idea of personal commitment to following God's will and to living by the highest ideals, with its potential impact on family, local or national situations, had helped Ida at a time when she had had difficulties in her life.

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