More Memories from Mom´s Childhood

 

Our talks have continued during mom´s recovery time. So much information, so many memories. It has actually been a delightful time despite the ups and downs due to her surgery.

My mom loves eating soup and I have come to understand why. Basically, that was what grandma Eva could afford to make to feed such a large family. A few ingredients go a long way- just add more water. I asked my mother what kind of soup was her favorite and she said that, in fact, any soup that had potatoes in it. She simply loves potatoes and it is easy to understand why, what grows best in Europe? Potatoes. Because of only making soup, grandma was not a fantastic cook. However, she did make corn bread once a week. Mom remembers that it was this real tough bread to bite into but the aroma in the house was yummy. They had a wooden oven to bake in. I also guess that that was their heating system in the winter. Mom doesn´t remember.

Grandma Eva was one of a kind. She lived with us while we lived in the US for a few years. At that time Miriam (my middle sister), Grandma and I slept in the same room. Miriam and I had to share a bed. She made us say our prayers every night and she prayed the rosery every night too. I told my mom some things that I still do nowadays because of grandma, whether it is considered a childhood trauma or not, but she told me two things, to be exact, that I do every single day. One is that if you do not make your bed as soon as you get up in the morning, your guardian angel will spend the day in bed and won´t accompany you throughout the day ( who wants that to happen? Not me for sure!) Another thing is that you should always match your bra and panties because you never know when you will faint in the street and need to be rescued by the paramedics. Oh, and there shouldn´t be any holes in either one. I used to laugh every time she said this, but I do it. Mom added that when she was growing up, grandma Eva would tell all the children that they had to wear their best outfits to bed because you did not know whether you would wake up the next day and if you didn´t, you would be buried in your best outfit. I am sure that Grandma Eva must have had many more life rules, but we only thought of these.

Grandma used to knit, embroider rugs and crochet. I guess that is where my handcraft skills come from. I also knit, crochet, embroider, paint - I simply love working with my hands. Mom´s profession later on, when she moved to Brazil, was rare too. She was a darner, a person who mends (a hole in knitted material) by interweaving yarn with a needle.  She also did this in the US for the police department. What a gift she had! Some of the police coats that she had to darn had cigarette holes in them. When she finished her work, you could not even tell where the hole had been. Nowadays, she doesn´t do this anymore, it really took a toll on her eyes.  

Grandma Eva´s mother was a teacher whose name was Miquelina Zeferina dos Reis Santana Mariana do Espirito Santo Bombinha and she married Manuel Pereira Tavares. Great grandma Miquelina must have come from a noble Family, first because of her name. Only noble women had such long names at her time and she was a teacher. At that time, you could only further your studies if you had money to pay for education. Great great grandma was also a teacher.       (Guess that´s where my becoming a teacher comes from) Mom studied up to the 3^rd or 4^th year of school. At that time, it was enough. You learned how to read, write and basic math. Mom also mentioned that she used to walk to school by herself. She doesn´t remember whether she wore a uniform, but she did remember that when there was a test at school, she needed to take a jar of orange juice and a sandwich. I asked her the reason for that, and she said that she only took food to school when there was a test; perhaps for the students to do better on the test. I asked her what kind of sandwich. That led to a story about killing a pig and melting the fat in a large can similar to a can of paint and then storing the pieces of meat there so they would just need to take it out and heat it to eat. But for sure, what she took to school was bread and butter. She also mentioned that she walked to school by herself, no one took her. She must have been 7 or 8 at the time. The school was down the road, near the church about a kilometer away or more. When she told me, she mentioned my place to the end of the street. But I bet that for a small child it seemed like a long journey to and from school every day.

Unfortunately, Grandma Eva did not marry a rich man and due to this, she was shunned from her family. Therefore, she couldn´t afford to send her children to the city to further their studies. After those three years of schooling, the boys would work on the fields and the girls would do house chores, which included taking lunch to grandpa out in the fields.

Grandma Eva was a very religious person and she made the whole family go to the first mass of the day and every day. Mom says that sometimes she would tell her mom that she had a headache and she would be allowed to stay home. Stupid me asked if that was true, that she had a lot of headaches. Mom replied that it was a lie and since she was the youngest, Grandma never questioned her. We laughed.

It was a pleasant afternoon. Obviously, there were so many other stories that she told me, but I will keep those to myself.

Written: January 20, 2021

Grandma Eva at a later age

Grandma Eva when she moved to Brazil

 

Google Images: This is a recent picture of the church- Nossa Senhor da Ajudar- my mom and her family used to go to when they lived on Bretanha, Portugal.

Google Images: Bretanha, Portugal
Mom says that her house was to the left of the church. 
This is a recent picture, but when mom lived there, there weren´t as many houses.