Cyprus: At 105 years old, Argyri (Argyro) Achillea, the oldest voter in the Paphos electoral district, exercises her voting right, remaining faithful to a life journey filled with toil, dignity, and love for her homeland, as she tells CNA. Achillea, who lives in Tala, will head to the polls, as she has done in every election throughout the years. "After I get dressed, my granddaughter Sofia will take me to vote," she says, maintaining a life stance that hasn't bent to time.
According to Cyprus News Agency, Achillea speaks about her relative, the famous composer and singer Cat Stevens, who made a great career in England, later embraced Islam, and renamed himself Yusuf Islam. As Argyri reveals, his father and her mother were siblings. She had previously declared her wish to live long enough to vote for the next President of the Republic. For Cyprus, her wish remains simple but profound, "peace and love for the whole world."
Her life represents an entire chapter of rural Cyprus. Mother of eight children-five sons and three daughters-she now has a large family of 23 grandchildren, 40 great-grandchildren, and 23 great-great-grandchildren surrounding her. Her husband, Sophocles Achilleos, originally from Amargeti, operated a bus service transporting people from Tala and Emba. He passed away over 27 years ago.
She dedicated her life to the land and work. She labored during harvest season, cultivation, carob trees, and even road construction to raise her children. Meanwhile, she operated a coffee shop in Tala community-a gathering place that became a reference point for the village.
Today, her youngest son Alexander Achilleos remains constantly by her side, though all her children visit regularly. Some live far away-one son in England, others in Nicosia-but family bonds remain strong. Her granddaughter, Sofia Georgiou, remembers her coffee shop where children would run to meet her. From her grandmother, she learned to make traditional flaounes and sausages, flavors and traditions passed through generations. She said her grandmother loves pulses, avoids meat and drinks a lot of water.
The 105-year-old loves attending church and remains deeply faithful. Today, bearing a century of memories, labor, and sacrifice, she will once again enter the polling station in Tala-not merely as Paphos' eldest voter, but as a living embodiment of endurance, family legacy, and historical witness.