Dr. Piro Velo

In Memory of Dr. Piro Velo
Beloved husband, father and grandfather
September 6, 1934 – December 1, 2014


This is in memory of an extraordinary man who lived an extraordinary life.

In 1934 in a small village called Dardhe, in the town of Korca in Albania, a baby boy was born. His parents, Sotir and Annie Velo, had traveled from Paris, France, where Sotir was attending medical school, to give birth to their first child in their own home country. They named him Piro, As in the Greek Orthodox tradition, they also named their baby boy after a saint, St. Thomas, a name that Piro celebrated throughout his life.

Just like King Pyrrhus, who fought and won many battles, so did Piro; and just like St. Thomas who doubted Christ’s resurrection, Piro too, with his inquisitive and curious nature, had his own doubts. In a communist country like Albania, Piro had to carry the cross so many times, but God was always by his side. It is because of the presence of God in his life, that despite all the life struggles, Piro was always considered the lucky one.

The family moved permanently to Albania when Piro’s father, Dr. Sotir Velo started practicing medicine as an ophthalmologist. Piro was the oldest of his three other siblings, Maks, Diana, and Roza. As a child he went to a Catholic school, where he learned values which he would hold dear all his life. As the oldest child, Piro had many responsibilities that involved taking care of his younger siblings and helping out his parents. Piro continued to carry out these responsibilities throughout his adult life.

Growing up, Piro also was an outstanding student with great love for books and science. He was very passionate about medicine and that was the only thing he wanted to do in life. He risked not going to college, when he passed up an offer to study economics and decided to wait and see if a spot would open up in medical school. He was so determined that he even met with the Albanian Minister of Education and yes, miracles do happen. A spot did open up in medical school and Piro was thrilled to join. He would read and study long hours, sometimes in the park under the trees. Dr. Petro Cani, at the time the best surgeon in Tirana, the capital of Albania, took Piro under his wings. Piro learned so much from his mentor and worked long hours at night in the hospital, sometime even as a substitute for his mentor. He did all this as he was completing medical school, where many of the professors were Russian. Dr. Piro Velo became known as one of the brightest general surgeons of his generation. He was offered to practice medicine in Tirana and also teach in medical school. He did so for a few years. When the opportunity presented itself, Dr. Piro selflessly volunteered to go from Tirana to Peshkopi, which is one of the most remote northern towns in Albania. Peshkopi was up in the mountains, it snowed a lot and medical assistance was very limited. The young Dr. Piro went there to save the helpless and the poor, to heal those who needed help the most. He went there to save lives and be an instrument of God’s will. That was his mission in life. It did not matter whether he was tired, whether it was 2am at night or bad weather, Dr. Piro was always ready to help anyone who knocked on his door. He believed in the power of surgery, but did not just talk the talk. He courageously walked the walk and elected to go under the knife a few times in his later years.

In the 60’s, Dr. Piro Velo was appointed the Chief Surgeon in the Hospital of Vlora, a beautiful city of about 80,000 people on the coastline of the Adriatic and Ionian Seas. Soon Dr. Piro became a celebrity in Vlora, for his high standards and impeccable work ethic, his achievements and the lives he saved every day, the personal sacrifices he made, as well as his good looks. At that time, Dr. Piro married Geti Gurashi, a beautiful girl form a very reputable Catholic family, who had recently graduated from college as a geologist/oil engineer. Together they had two children, Ani (their eldest) and Ivson, their son. He would always teach his children by example and was very warm and affectionate to them. Unfortunately, in a communist country like Albania, everyone's life was controlled by the government. In the late seventies, Dr. Piro Velo and his entire family were persecuted, once his brother was put in prison for his modern art. Dr. Piro voluntarily chose to bear the cross and the heaviest sufferings for himself to spare other family members. He had to travel to remote areas, be away from his family for long periods of time, just so that his wife and two children lived a somewhat normal life in the city of Vlora.

In the words of a family friend, Spiro Bonjaku, about Dr. Piro’s times in Vlora, “Dr. Piro was not for that place and not for that time. He distanced himself and lived his life far from the mediocrity of the society. He lived with pride, ignoring the hypocrisy, lies, and those who would curry favors …”.
Dr. Piro would rise above the ordinary to be extraordinary. He had the most generous spirit. He liked big things in life and always thought big. He valued honesty and sincerity in any human being. When it came to friendships, Dr. Piro enjoyed the company of a fisherman or truck driver the same way and sometime even more than that of a doctor or engineer. For his family and friends, he was so much more than a doctor. He was a mentor, a visionary, an optimist with amazing imagination, historian, entertainer with endless anecdotes, orator (when Dr. Piro spoke, people listened), philosopher with his own theories on many different subjects, opera lover, regular beach goer, gourmet chef experimenting with various recipes from escargot to frog legs to rabbit stew, sports fan (tennis and soccer in particular), inventor who tinkered with many projects like converting an oven to electric to roast the turkey for New Year’s eve in Albania, and so much more. He appreciated different cultures, had an eclectic taste in music and arts, including his most recent collection of Tiki masks.

In the late 80s, the days of communism in Albania were numbered, but it was still a scary thought to think that a country that was kept in isolation since the 40s, would end its dictatorship. Once the American Embassy returned to Albania in the early 90’s, the American dream for Dr. Piro Velo was the closest it had ever been and he was among the first who had the courage and took the initiative to pursue it. His mother, Annie, was American. She was born in Boston in 1912 as one of the two children of her immigrant parents. Dr. Piro Velo received an automatic citizenship through his mother.
In the mid 90’s, Dr. Piro, his wife Geti, their recent college graduate daughter Ani and their teenage son, Ivson, came to America, leaving everything behind. Piro and Geti had to face the common challenges of immigration at the time when other people their age were making retirement plans or had already retired. Piro embraced all his new life challenges: the low paying jobs, learning a new language, getting a driver's license, understanding a new culture, getting used to the cold Massachusetts winters, and not once did he complain. To the contrary, he was so grateful to be in the USA and especially for the fact that his children would live their lives here. In early 2000, the family moved to San Diego and Ani, married into the Price Family who welcomed the Velos with open arms. Now there were three Thomas-es in the family, who would celebrate each spring St. Thomas day: Piro Thomas, his son in law Vincent Thomas and grandson and the joy of Babi Piro’s life, Jon Thomas.

Dr. Piro Velo ended his days in sunny San Diego surrounded by the family he had sacrificed all his life for.

May our Heavenly Father welcome him and embrace him in his divine peace. Amen.