MY TRIBUTE TO THE WOMAN WHO GAVE ME LIFE

The Matriarch leaves for heaven, where she goes celebrating his 100th birthday, alongside God, your loved ones, the Saints and the Angels.

My Matriarch, because she is the mother of all lights, the matrix from which I inherited everything: courage, boldness, firmness, honesty, simplicity, generosity, freedom of spirit and the simple idea that only work dignifies the human being.

At the age of 18, she asked her father, João Branco, to have her own house - she wanted to be independent and live from her work. She began to buy coconuts and sugar to make sweets and sell them to earn an income. That's how she raised her children - there are four of them: Bebeta, the eldest, whom she raised with a lot of affection, and who later helped her look after the younger ones; Tony, the second son, who grew up with his father, with whom she had a very special friendship, perhaps because he lived far away from her protective "sulada"; and my twin sister, Maria José, and I, whom everyone considered to be the youngest. He gave us bread, letters and a lamp to light all our paths. She showed us how to make our own fishing rods and catch our own fish. Life taught her to be tough and sometimes severe, but she never lost her serenity and tenderness. She gave us everything and helped us overcome every obstacle.

At a very young age, when her mother died, she took care of her father and siblings - she was the second of nine - taking over the leadership of the household. She made such tasty traditional dishes - she had the hands of a fairy - that I've never eaten such appetizing things since she stopped cooking or making jams and jellies. She was a woman of arms who never tired of taking care of others: her father, brothers, children, nephews, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren, neighbors and friends. I have many, many foster siblings, they are in my heart, I treat them with such affection. With rare care, she welcomed my friends who I invited to the house, with sweets and treats that only she knew how to make, plus the affection and tenderness that came from her soul.