Our friend and colleague Ing-Marie Raptis, after three months of struggle, has passed away on February 5, 2020. She was the lady behind the scenes, the discreet partner of the excavations. For over 15 years she was the one who was sewing the bags for the pottery lots, and not only for the Agora Excavations but also for other excavations like Thebes.

She started working as a house keeper at the Stoa of Attalos about ten years ago, reforming our "classical" tea time by changing the traditional Papadopoulos crackers for whole wheat crackers, adding butter and honey to the menu when not baking Swedish buns for a treat. These small gestures express her personality, she was always trying to improve our environment at every opportunity by introducing ecological cleaning products, or embellishing it by bringing flowers to our table just as a simple rose or a wild bouquet.

She was kind and compassionate, and had a special relationship with the supervisors and the student excavators. She was the one who would carry the 3 kilos cake in the middle of the summer for the student celebrating its birthday, and she always made sure we forgot no one.

She felt home at the Stoa and treated us as family. We will miss her and her creativity and her way to always surprise us.