In Celebration of
Nicolas Yerakarakos
February 15, 1928 -
April 1, 2017
Passed away peacefully on Saturday, April 1, 2017 at the age of 89. Nick was born and raised in Vathia, Laconia, Greece on the Mani peninsula. He lost his brother Vasilli and later his father Ioannis when he was 15 and thereafter supported and cared for his mother Argiro and siblings Margarita, Adoni, Mixali, and Koula, devoting his life to helping them start their families before starting his own. He met and married Lela Kabanakis in 1967, and remained her loyal husband for 48 years until her passing in 2015. Together they welcomed their children Argiro (Lula), Theodora (Dora), Johnny, and Margaret, who all became the singular focus of their lives. He was proud of their every achievement, no matter how big or small: becoming a teacher, learning a trade, giving him grandchildren, or simply helping their mother when she needed them. For Nick, anything his children did was more profound than anything he accomplished in life. And he accomplished a lot: with the responsibility for a family on him from the time he was a boy, he helped lift all of them from an impoverished beginning, learned to be a master craftsman, a cabinetmaker without equal, building and refinishing furniture that fills countless homes in Canada and Greece; he helped his siblings buy their homes, and bought 3 for himself. As a matchmaker, he helped numerous couples find each other and start their own families. He loved fishing, hunting, the most challenging furniture repairs, his every moment in Greece with his brothers, and always dreaming big. But more than anything he loved his beautiful granddaughter Isabel, and his grandsons Thomas and Nicholas. Nothing in life made him happier than the first time he held them, and every moment he spent with them thereafter. He will be dearly missed by his sister, brothers, son and daughters, grandchildren, his sons-in-law Eric and Paul, and numerous nieces and nephews. Friends may call at the Turner & Porter Yorke Chapel, 2357 Bloor St. W. (East of the Jane subway) on Thursday from 6 - 9 pm. Funeral Service will be held at Annunciation of the Virgin Mary Greek Orthodox Cathedral, 136 Sorauren Avenue, Toronto, on Friday, April 7, 2017 at 11 am. Online condolences may be made through www.turnerporter.ca