Meire Marion's Corner...: My Mother´s Side of the Family

Since my mom has been spending some time with me while she is recovery from a surgery, we have been talking about our family. People whom I have never met and those who are still alive and kicking. This morning I woke up contemplating about these people and I want to write something about them through my eyes and through my mom´s. I will start with my mother´s side of the family and go as far back as I can. ( In a future text, I will write about dad´s side of the family)

My mother is the youngest of six, Rui, Maria, Bibiana, Miquelina, Filomena and Helena (mom). Mom says that afterwards her mother gave birth to three more baby boys who died before they completed their first birthday. The first one, died at 9 months from pneumonia- mom does not remember his name, but he was given a name. She thinks that perhaps he was named Antonio. However, she recalls that he was so lovely that whoever looked at him would say `He´s so beautiful but he won´t be yours`- and they were right. The next one died only a few days old. My mom remembers that her mom had placed a bowl filled with boiling water next to the baby and apparently the bowl tipped over and the baby ended up dying. Mom says that it was the baby who did it. The youngest of all was born with many birth imperfections and nobody saw it. She just remembers her father burying it. All her siblings were born in the same house with the help of a midwife on the Island of São Miguel, Azores, Portugal. Her parents were Eva and Manuel from Ponta Delgada, Portugal.

My grandmother became a widow when my mom was nine years old. Grandpa Manuel died from a urine infection at that time medical assistance was not easy. Mom doesn´t remember too much about her father. He was a quiet man and farmer who sold yams, but the family mostly lived off the land. One thing that she does recall was that her father was working in the fields and asked my mom to go up the hill and turned on the water faucet. So, she did that. But what he really wanted was a cold glass of water. She thought that he wanted the water to run down to the plantation. She also recalls that she and her sister had to take him lunch in the fields, but they never knew which side he had gone to. They would go to one side and it took around an hour to get to only to find out that he was on the other side. While he ate, he would make them use and noise maker (reco-reco) to scare the birds. She didn´t think that it was a game, she thought it was punishment.

My mom also tells me that she loves eating soup because that is basically what her mother made day in and day out. She also recalls that she would go and buy meat only for her brother. One day mom cried and cried that she wanted a piece of meat. Grandma turned to her and demanded that she stop crying because the meat was for her brother and if my mom wanted a piece of meat, she needed to cut her mom´s arm off to eat. Due to their low social class, on their birthday they would get a boiled egg as a gift. Eggs were their exchange money. She would take six eggs and exchange them for sugar and flour. Mom says that she would go. She also says that when there wasn´t enough soup for the whole family, my grandma would give my mom and her sister Filomena a piece of bread and tell them to go eat the bread under the fruit tress and pick the fruit off the tree to eat with the bread. Mom has some sad memories from her childhood, but I am sure she had some good moments too which she doesn´t recall.

The first one to leave Portugal and head to Brazil was uncle Rui. Later on, he called the whole family to join him. She arrived in Brazil in 1956, 13 at the time. They left the Azores on a ship that stopped in Lisbon where they stayed for a month at her rich aunt´s home. Mom remembers that the moment she stepped in the front yard, she noticed a beautiful plum tree and mentioned it out loud. Her aunt looked at her and told her that she was prohibited from eating the fruit off that tree. Mom adds that until today she has not eaten a fresh plum – tomorrow, I will buy her one.

After the 30 days in Portugal, the ship sailed onwards to Brazil. Mom remembers that the ship stopped again on one of the islands and that the family went sightseeing. She says it was interesting.

Uncle Rui met aunt Nancy here in Brazil. They got married and had two boys, Eduardo and Hamilton. They moved to the US and managed to bring my mom and her family, Aunt Filomena and her family to live in the US in 1971.

Aunt Maria met uncle Alvaro here in Brazil and from the marriage had two children: Idenir and Celso. Unfortunately, they got divorced and aunt Maria raised her two children. Sadly, Idenir has already passed. She had a heart attack a few years ago.

Aunt Bibiana was dating uncle David when she moved to Brazil, they met in Portugual. They got married and had three children: Sergio, Catia and Mike. They moved to Canada right after Sergio was born.

Aunt Miquelina also had a Portuguese boyfriend, uncle Manuel ( whose birthday is the same day as mine). They got married here in Brazil and moved to Canada. They had four children: Oliberto, Nomesio, Aparecida and Eva.

Aunt Filomena met uncle Raymundo, got married and had two children: Katia and Claudio. Uncle Raymundo owned a famous butcher shop here in São Paulo before he retired.

Mom met dad here in Brazil when she was 20. She and grandma- later Aunt Maria and her kids – lived in front of a church. Dad, João, was very active in the church and one day knocked on her door to ask for contributions for the church bazar that was coming up. Mom recalls that her sister-in-law – Aunt Nancy- was with her at the time and mom turned to her and said, “This man is going to be my husband one day”. And so, it happened, mom and dad got married and had two girls in Brazil and one girl in the US. Meire -me-, Miriam and Melissa.

Since we also moved to the US in 1971, I remember spending time with my cousins from mom´s side of the family up until 1982, when we moved back to Brazil. Many great memories are still vivid in my mind (of course, there are no so great ones as well).

Written: January 15, 2021