Antonio Mylonakis

Antonio Mylonakis, 62, of Orlando, passed away April 21, 2017. In Lieu of Flowers the family requests donations be made in Antonio's name to: St. Haralampus Orthodox Church 4905 Simmons Road Orlando, FL 32812 The below eulogy was given at the funeral by his oldest son, George,Χριστὸς ἀνέστη! Thank you all for coming to our humble little church... my father Tony contributed a lot to building it and supporting our clergy when they visited, so it seemed fitting to have the services here in spite of the cramped quarters. If you knew my father it was hard not to love him. Our family has received countless calls and messages of condolences, and we are very grateful for these words of support. Of course you also get some people that call so upset at the news that they are looking for comfort from us… The CEO of Dollar Tree was almost inconsolable. But that is understandable, and everyone handles grief differently… some people call the phones of their departed loved ones just to hear the sound of their voice on the voicemail message… of course if you call my Dad’s cell phone to listen to his message you hear Lionel Richey sing, "Hello? Is it me you’re looking for?" …typical Tony. My father loved being right. The last thing he said to me as I was walking out the door last Monday was “George, take care of your mother” – and I said “Geez, Dad, I’d like to think I would see you again" and then he kind of didn’t say anything, because, as usual, he knew he was right. But as we heard Father say, our faith tells that we will be reunited in the common resurrection… so I was right too. Officially he died on 4/21 at the hospital, but in reality he took his last breath the day before at his home on one of his favorite holidays, and the miracles of modern medicine kept his heart beating just long enough for us to say one last goodbye. Either way it is a great blessing to repose during Bright Week, which is the week that follows Pascha (or Easter), when the joy of the Resurrection is shining its brightest. While God doesn't often speak to us in a booming voice from the clouds anymore, he sends us little comforts like that which can be overlooked or shrugged off as coincidence if we are not listening for Him. His mother Argyetta reposed on the eve of Palm Sunday which is also a great blessing. I remember the priest at her funeral started his sermon by saying “I don’t often remark about a casket” but hers portrayed the Last Supper, and she was “coincidentally” buried on Holy Thursday. While my father's casket is very simple, since as he would say, he was a no frills kind of guy, you may notice the back window of his hearse simply says “Good Life” …and for my Dad, I think nothing could be more accurate. He truly led a good life, and lived it to the fullest. He also provided a great life to our family. We had an amazing childhood filled with cross country trips and camp outs, and my father was very proud that for the majority of our childhood he worked mostly from home, which allowed him to never miss a sports game or school play, which he told us many times… because as you may know he tended to repeat himself, he tended to repeat himself, he tended to repeat himself. Then when he had his big accident 12 years ago, and we thought we were going to lose him. We all prayed and prayed that God would give us just a little more time with him, and thankfully He did. Tony called this his “bonus time” and to say he made the most of it is an understatement to say the least. While he gave us great memories BC (or before crash), he made sure that the memories he has given us since then are so colorful and vivid that they are impossible to ever forget. We sometimes joked with him about the way he spoke, and wrote on Facebook, about love and God in a way that sometime seemed a little cheesy to us then, but going back and reading his words, it is hard to believe what an amazing gift he left us, and his words provide a great comfort now... He was always ahead of his time, as he liked to say. If you go on his Facebook and scroll past all the Trump and Putin posts, I am sure you will see what I mean. During his bonus time, we got to enjoy so many extra birthdays and anniversaries, and of course he got to see engagements, and weddings, and grandchildren… and while he made more life-long friends in 62 years than most people make in a hundred, as evidenced by the many people that traveled from near and far on short notice to be here today, something that stood out to me are the friendships he made and impressions he has left with people that have only known him in recent years. For his family and long-time friends, the 12 extra years God gave us with Tony means we got to enjoy him for that much longer, but for those of you that have only known him during the last 12 years, you should know that God put him in your life during this time for a reason… and I am willing to bet he was a source of good for you. Thankfully the church gives us comfort when we lose a good person from our lives, which you can see here in our little chapel if you look around and see all the saints on the walls. While we venerate them, we don’t worship them, because they were men and women just like us, but they strove to do good, and so we look to them as an example, but we also call them intercessors… we ask them to pray to God for us. So all of us now have a new intercessor in heaven that we can ask to pray to God on our behalf, and I'm sure Tony will be happy to oblige. Because while he may not have been a saint in the traditional sense of the word, I know there is no one who could have borne his cross as gracefully as he did. He was such a happy person and full of life, especially in the last 12 years, and while he loved his bonus time, it was without a doubt the hardest 12 years of his life. Having gone through such a traumatic accident, his body had various forms of chronic pain and for a time his speech was impacted, which had been one of his proudest talents. He equated it to a concert pianist losing his fingers. It was hard for him to go from being the smartest guy in the room, to feeling like he wasn’t anymore, even though he usually still was. But one stark illustration for me was when he casually told me about his tinnitus, which is a constant ringing in his hears, and at that point he had been dealing with it for years. Can you imagine having to listen to a constant ringing, and still have to be able to think and go on with your day? My wife can’t even listen to me crunch a few potato chips without going crazy… I can’t imagine how something like that would wear on you. We made light of the fact that he would always say things like “you have no idea" and "you just don’t understand,” but I think few of us really understood or could truly appreciate the kind of suffering he had on an ongoing basis. Because while he might say something about it, he would always go back to his joking, happy self, or brush it off and say “ya, ya, I got issues” and move on with enjoying the things in life that he could. The church refers to death as a repose, or a rest, and just as he said of his mother after she reposed from lung cancer, the church too tells us: “he is ok now.” Now we are the ones that have to be strong and carry on until it is our turn to take our rest. On the back of the memorial cards is a verse from the Paschal Homily of Saint John Chrysostom that seemed appropriate and comforting and I would like to close with those words: Let no one fear death, for the Saviour's death has set us free. He that was taken by death has annihilated it! He descended into Hades and took Hades captive! He embittered it when it tasted His flesh! And anticipating this, Isaiah exclaimed: "Hades was embittered when it encountered Thee in the lower regions". It was embittered, for it was abolished! It was embittered, for it was mocked! It was embittered, for it was purged! It was embittered, for it was despoiled! It was embittered, for it was bound in chains! It took a body and came upon God! It took earth and encountered Ηeaven! It took what it saw, but crumbled before what it had not seen! O death, where is thy sting? O Hades, where is thy victory? Christ is risen, and you are overthrown! Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen! Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice! Christ is risen, and life reigns! Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in a tomb! For Christ, being raised from the dead, has become the first-fruits of them that have slept. To Him be glory and might unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Antonio Mylonakis

August 17, 1954 - April 21, 2017