#Faní's mom is only like 4-5 years older than Alki

[slaymate]

Would love to know more about Fani and her mom. What’s their relationship like pre and post fire?

You guys really love the family drama, huh!

To keep it vague, Faní's mother Dimitra is an extremely sensitive person whose mental illness is aggravated by her negative experiences of getting married too young, being abandoned by her philandering husband, and taking on his trading business to raise her daughter as a single mom. She tries to protect Faní from repeating her own mistakes (namely, getting involved with any man), but ends up isolating both of them from family and friends the older Faní gets. The Greco-Turkish War is only the last straw that makes her turn increasingly violent against her child.

Faní consequently has been brought up as a people pleaser who does everything in her power to preserve her ailing mother's better moods and health. Their relationship before the fire is certainly one of co-dependency - a dysfunctional family dynamic if you will - although they genuinely love each other.

Now, Alki's entrance during the Great Fire of Smyrna is probably Dimitra's worst case scenario. They were acquainted on a business level before, in fact, and hated each other's guts. Reuniting after 6+ months of separation, Dimitra is positively delusional, and doesn't seriously acknowledge Faní's marriage or, later, the existence of Faní's children. In practice, Faní becomes her caretaker for part of the year, and only stays with Alki for the rest.