University holds ceremony for two students killed in Tempe crash

In a somber ceremony on Monday, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki honored the memory of two students who were killed in February’s rail disaster at Tempe in Central Greece by delivering their degrees to their families.

Elpida Houpa and Erietta Molchou were enrolled at the Aristotle’s School of Architecture when they died in the crash, which claimed the lives of 57 people, mostly university students going back to school after a long holiday weekend, after the intercity from Athens to Thessaloniki collided with a freight train traveling in the opposite direction.

Houpa’s degree was handed to her two brothers after her parents said, in a social media post, that they did not have the strength to attend the ceremony, to “stand there with a lifeless piece of paper and no child to bless.” Molchou’s was delivered to her mother, who congratulated the other graduates.