This story is part of the Niles West News 2025 Immigration Series which documents community members’ experiences immigrating to the United States. Most of these stories are written by Niles West News writers, but some will feature guest writers who will tell their family’s story. This piece was written by senior Alex Wolski about his grandmother.

Immigrating to a new country is never an easy endeavor, but at ten years old, Eleni Benetatos made the move with her family from Greece to America to seek out a better life. Throughout the journey, she always made an effort to help others and keep her native traditions alive.

In Greece, Benetatos and her family were very poor. Her parents struggled to find work and often relied on neighbors for food. They had family that had previously immigrated to America, based in Chicago, so that was instrumental in making the move. Even with the help, their new lives initially struggled to get going.

“It was very hard when we first came here. I had to help with [my siblings], clean the house as best as I could, and try to help with the laundry [and] try to help with cooking. [I] just tried to help my mom,” Benetatos said.

Though she was not the oldest sibling, she was the most responsible. Because of her young age, she learned English much quicker than her siblings and the other immigrants living in her community. This gave her an advantage over others in Chicago’s Greek immigrant community.

“I believe it took me six months to learn the language. Anytime anyone needed to find a job or apply for something, they would take me with and I would be the official interpreter,” Benetatos said.

The immigrant experience taught Benetatos to help others throughout her adult life. She always wanted the best for everyone she cared about. These traits helped prepare her for motherhood. Raising five children in a new country comes with its challenges, but Benetatos had an unconventional way of addressing them.

“It was overwhelming a lot of times, but I tried the best I could. I mainly spoiled them, and Pappou [Grandpa] too. They got whatever they wanted, ate whatever they want[ed] [and] went wherever we wanted to go,” Benetatos said.

Her children led lives she and her husband could have only dreamed of, coming from poverty in Greece and trying to restart their lives in America. However, this fortune came at a cost. Although she got everything she asked for, Anastasia Benetatos Wolski, Eleni Benetatos’s eldest child, did not have every freedom she wanted.

“My parents didn’t let me date, they didn’t let me go to dances, they didn’t let me go to football games. I was probably the weird kid because my parents were really overprotective,” Wolski said.

Wolski’s younger sisters did not experience the same restrictions to their social lives as teenagers. Instead, Maria Stergiou, Eleni Benetatos’s second eldest daughter, recalls experiencing more of an emotional disconnection from her mother.

“She didn’t have time to ask us ‘How was your day.’ That stuff was stuff that I wish that I had, but the way [she was] raised, those are questions that weren’t as valuable in [her] upbringing. It was about ‘how are you being productive and how you are an able member of this family,’” Stergiou said.

Maintaining consistency in all aspects of life is anything but easy with five children. Alternatively, one value that did stay consistent in the Benetatos family was tradition.

“[My kids] went to church every Sunday, special holidays. They volunteered at the church. They were part of the community,” Benetatos said.

The Benetatos children were not just church attendants, they all played different roles in their Clergy.

“My mother had me in the choir, my brothers were altar boys, my sisters were Sunday School teachers,” Wolski said.

Though she went to Church often, Stergiou took connecting with her Greek roots to the next level.

“I would go to Church on Friday nights, I would go to youth group things, just to be around people who were like us as much as possible because I knew it was my job to do that for myself,” Stergiou said.

Maintaining tradition has always been important to Benetatos; she embraced it with her children and continues to do so with her 11 grandchildren. She may be an American on paper, but she is a proud Greek-American at heart.