Athena Nola "Yiayia" Slager

1930 - 2024

Athena (Nola) Georgedes Slager – aka Yiayia

1930 ~ 2024

Our beloved Yiayia has finally reached the end of her journey on earth and has gone to rejoin her father, mother, brother and her adopted Koulouris/Papoulas family including Poppy (Penelope Koulouris) who was her closest and dearest friend in life.

She was born in Helper Utah on November 15, 1930, to Charles Georgedes, a Greek immigrant and Irene Hatzipanagiotou, a mail order bride from Asia minor. Nola spoke Greek at home and only learned English when she went to school. She told us stories of being bullied walking home being called a dirty Greek, but like many immigrants, Greeks, Italians, Irish – all of which are part of her children and grandchildren's bloodlines, she and her father had a fire in their bellies. Something intangible that drove them to take risks and accomplish more in this great land that we all cherish. Like other immigrants, she was raised to work hard and achieve more than prior generations. Her mother died when she was only 9 and she was forced to take on more to help her father and her younger brother. She was tough and resilient and to no one's surprise was up to the task. She went on to get a master's degree, become a great mother, teacher, and strong community leader.

As anyone who knew her would attest, she had strong views on everything including sports and politics. She loved her Utes, her Jazz and all Utah sports and she was an avid fan until the day she died. We would all expect to get a call from her complaining about the bad refs in the game or the poor play if her team had not performed well. She was also passionate about politics and a staunch Democrat. That said she was not a pushover and would be equally vocal about the policy and legislative agenda of both Democratic and Republican leadership.

Yiaya would call her kids and grandchildren by Greek terms of endearment like Koukla ("little doll") or Poulaki Mou ("My little Bird") which they all loved. When we took her to the Jazz games she would lose her cool but mostly swearing in Greek so they would not toss her out of the stadium. Her common refrain when she was not happy with the refs was just simply "Vlaka" ("fool").

She leaves behind an inspiring legacy of accomplishment and the impact of her life will be felt for generations. Her memory will be eternal through her three children – sons, Chirstopher and Jonathan (Liz), daughter Athena, and six grandchildren, Christopher, Samantha, Kassandra, Nicholas, Melissa, and Athena. She also left a lasting impact on many others including her students, her friends and so many people with whom she interacted in her life. She spent many years of service teaching elementary school, mostly at an inner-city school, Lincoln Elementary, where she felt she was most needed by her students who had limited role models and family support. She was also an active member of the Greek Orthodox church her whole life which she served for as long as she could. She had the role of President of the Philoptochos Society and was named a "Pillar of the Community" by the Salt Lake City Greek Orthodox community for her many years of service. She, along with her lifelong friends Greg and Jenny Skedros led the effort to establish the annual Greek Festival and they worked tirelessly all their lives to continue to improve it. Her grandkids also have profound memories of her home cooked meals.

Her proudest and greatest accomplishments were in her children and grandchildren. She pushed all of her kids and she raised three accomplished children all of whom have masters degrees; her oldest son, Christopher, pursued computer engineering and recently retired from the IRS, her daughter Athena has a flourishing psychology practice and her son Jonathan, who was able to ring the bell on Wall Street as the CEO of a public company. She was a tough but extremely loving parent and her expectations of her kids and grandkids were never more than she expected from herself.

She was fiercely independent and strong, but she gave so much love and dedication to others. She was revered by all as one of the premier cooks in the Greek community but refused to record her recipes. To her credit, she cooked with heart and feel which is pretty hard to quantify. She put her baking skills to work overtime working tirelessly to prepare tens of thousands of pastries each year for the Festival, and then again at Christmas when she would make a variety of Greek pastries and other handmade sweets to give out to the fortunate many who were on her annual list. Despite her failing hands due to neuropathy and arthritis, she oversaw a crew of people to make over 3,000 Greek cookies for her grandson's wedding in October.

Yiayia, we will miss you but promise to honor your legacy and make you proud.

The family plans to hold a celebration of life on February 1, 2025 from 11:00 AM-3:00 PM at The Little America Hotel, 500 Main Street, Salt Lake City, Ballroom A-B.

Arrangements have been entrusted to Starks Funeral Parlor. Please visit www.Starksfuneral.com to share photos and memories with Athena's family.