Ilias Takis loved to sit with a coffee in his veggie garden. He offered shots of ouzo to friends and strangers and doted on his girls. He loved their weekly tram trips to the markets. He was born in 1939 in the tiny Greek village of Agia Triada. He died on July 24, aged 81.

Lina Onciarich was always the life of the party. She loved fancy dress and a whiskey on the rocks. At the centre of her world were her three children. She was born in 1932 in Trieste, Italy. For decades she worked as a barista in Melbourne’s Italian bars. She died aged 87.

Haralambos Bakirtzidis was a strong, acrobatic man, a skilled carpenter. He was a sensitive, artistic man too, who loved dancing. Born in the Greek city of Salonika, he arrived in Oz with his family in 1972. He and his family expected him to live to 100. COVID-19 stole such hope.

As a young mother on the Greek island of Corfu, Maria Vasilakis picked olives, walking hours each day to earn money for her children. She sailed with husband Peter to Oz in 1970. ‘She never held a grudge or whinged about anything,’ son Spiros says. She died on July 23 aged 81.

They are so much more than statistics in a pandemic. They built modern Australia, often coming from other countries to win a different future for themselves and their families. We pay tribute to four taken by COVID-19. Written with @tonyowright theage.com.au/national/victo… via @theage