Airport lounge home for British woman

Press, 27 September 1982, Page 8

Airport lounge home for British woman

NZPA Athens A British woman has been living in the waiting lounge at Athens airport for three years — ever since her Greek boyfriend failed to turn up to meet her. Nicole Williams, aged 32. from Nottingham, said: “I discovered my boyfriend had gone'to New Zealand. I had nowhere to go."

So she stayed at the airport. the “Mail on Sunday" reported. An Olympic Airways official, Dimitris Spiliopoulos, said yesterday: “Nicole has become part of the daily scene for employees. She sleeps on an airport couch, uses the lounge bathroom facilities, and we chip in with a couple of hundred drachmas a.day to give her a helping hand. "Everybody knows her here. Cleaning ladies, policemen, waiters'and even pilots greet her every morning." Her story" has just appeared in a Greek newspaper.'

The glare of publicity has driven her away from her airport lounge home — for the time being.

Head waiter, Dervitas Petros, who has been helping collect money for food for her, -said she would be back once the photographers had gone.

"This is her home now,” he said.

In her interview with the Greek papers. Nicole said that her parents had died 10 years ago, and her husband had.left her to go-to Alaska. They were divorced. Then she was. abandoned by her Greek boyfriend. “It is hot so bad here. I have a diary and write about the many people I met. I go out into the town, go for a swim, talk to the British tourists here, and come back to sleep at about ten-in the evening.” she said.. i';.