The war brought about changes in all aspects of everyday life. Hardships, frequent population transfers and uncertainty largely affected personal relationships. But even these adverse and gloomy conditions did not prevent people from having love affairs. In the vortex of the war, Efstratios Pissas, who was wounded in 1822 during the Cretan campaign, survived owing to the care of Maria and her family. A few years later, he met her in Argos, where she was a refugee. He wrote about their reunion: 

Arriving in Kakanis' house, I found Maria sitting on a cheap carpet. ... After staying there for an hour, chatting and consoling her, I took her maid Chrissi and we went to my mother's. I introduced her as one of the maids of the woman, to whose treatments I owed my life. In fact, because many times I had told my parents the story of my illness in Crete and my due gratitude to Maria and her maids, I did not need to say much to my mother, except that from that moment she had to consider Maria as another daughter of hers and help her in every possible way when I would be away, as if she were the most beloved member of our family.

(μτφ.: Μαρία Κομπορόζου)