Pilot, cafe owner, photographer: family remembers ‘incredible’ great-grandfather who died from Covid

Three weeks later, Apostolos Ioannis "Jack" Moulos died in aged care from Covid-19. Like so many others, his family were unable to say goodbye.

Jack was born in 1924 in a weatherboard cottage in Singleton, a riverside town on the banks of the Hunter valley.

Sixteen years earlier, his father had arrived in Australia via ship from Kythera - a small, poor Ionian island in southern Greece - with no English and little education. He was one of hundreds of Kytherians who carved a unique place in Australia's multicultural tapestry, establishing what were then modern cafes in regional towns, known as Greek cafes.

The Niagara Café , opened in Singleton by his father, would be the place Jack grew up and devoted much of his life. The Niagara was housed in an old art deco-style building, with potted palms and soda fountains. It was a cultural hub in Singleton, the place where Jack fell in love with books, jazz and classical music.

At age 17, Jack signed up as a fitter and turner in the second world war.

He experienced no direct conflict in the three years he served in Labuan, Malaysia, but he later told his daughters he missed books so terribly during the war he would go to the latrine just to reread old newspapers hanging as toilet paper.

'Dad was very, very thoughtful, very introverted," Michelle says.