farragutpress

‘Herculean’ father, his Huntington’s disease battle inspired Arapakos’ ‘Labor of Love’ books; at FHS

February 19, 2025 by Michelle Hollenhead, Special to farragutpress

Retired Farragut High School teacher Anna Arapakos wants her father to be remembered — not so much for how and why he died, but for how he lived and valiantly fought against the disease that ultimately took his life.

Arapakos has written a two-volume set, “A Labor of Love,” recently published and now available on Amazon, which compares her “larger-than-life” father, a native of Greece, to Hercules, “the most beloved and famous of all Greek mythical heroes,” she said.

“My father was a passionate man, and he had such a profound impact on me,” Arapakos said. “So, in Volume 1, my dad is Hercules. Then, chapter by chapter, I weave in symptoms of Huntington’s disease, which, ultimately, adversely impacts all muscles, not to mention parts of the brain.”

Arapakos researched a great deal about the disease, which is genetic, although it seems to have not afflicted her father’s family previously.

“What I want you, the reader, to do in Vol. 1 is to fall in love with my father — who he was to his core,” she added, noting it describes his “early years in Greece, his values, his personality. It is not a blow-by-blow biography, but the reason I tell my dad’s story is so you can know my dad — who he was before the disease.”

Arapakos said the first book ends “about the time the disease has started to kick in,” which in his case was later in life — typical for Huntington’s patients, which usually manifests itself in middle age.

“In the legend, Hercules was tricked and ended up murdering his wife and children,” she said. “My dad did not, of course, but I feel that my dad was tricked and given faulty genes, and he didn’t know it.

“It is a Greek tragedy in that he was never robbed of his core personality, but everything else was taken away from him,” Arapakos added.

The second volume covers not only her father’s later years but also details how Arapakos devoted herself to her father’s caretaking in ways a fellow FHS teacher described as “Herculean.”

“The second book is about me doing the 12 labors for my father when he became unable to care for himself, and it was arduous,” she said.

Arapakos said all proceeds from the sales of “A Labor of Love” will go directly to the Huntington’s Disease Society of America.

A Labor of Love, Vols. 1 and 2 are Arapakos’ most recent books; she also wrote about her coming to the Christian faith in “Connecting the Dots” and wrote “Living Stones,” which detailed 52 “love letters” to those dearest ones in her life. She hopes to inspire the reader to do the same.

Although retired, she is still a substitute teacher at FHS and Hardin Valley Academy, and she was recently asked to address students as a guest author for Dr. Cedelle Niles’s advanced creative writing class.