Epic is too small a word to describe my grandfather. He was of the greatest generation that is slowly dying out. After 97 brave years fighting poverty, starvation and the Germans, my grandfather, Stamatis (Mike) Ballas, passed on Monday, July 6, 2015. Mr. Mike was born on February 19, 1918 in Pensacola, Florida and was one of eight children. His parents, John and Magdalini Ballas emigrated from Greece ...Read More

How does the old saying go? "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." It's kind of hard to taste the lemonade while you're holding a bag of lemons though. Say you take your lemons, wash them, cut them, squeeze them and add sugar and water to sweeten the lemon juice. After all of the labor, you have lemonade. The same goes for the pot of gold at the ...Read More