When my grandfather first stepped on the shores of America as a newly-arrived 17-year-old immigrant, he bitterly vowed that he would never again return to the homeland whose poverty had forced him into what he considered exile. As the years passed and he married, had a family, and settled into a new life, one would have expected his vow to slowly be forgotten— but no, he held to his vow, and steadfastly refused to consider the urgings of family and friends that he return to Greece for a visit.