Vovó Albertina
My biggest role model.
On my way to reclaiming my womanhood, I started to look for my role models in my family and why they inspire me. Vovó Albertina is not only my grandmother, and fits in this description, but she also is the person who most inspired me in my whole life (and she continues to do so). Today, I want to share a bit about her with you, and share what I carry from her in my heart.
She was born as Albertina da Silva Moura, but when I met her she was already Albertina Moura de Salles Oliveira, for me, vovó Albertina. She was born in Santos, a beach city in São Paulo state in Brazil. She is my paternal grandmother, and she is turning 96 years old, this week.
She grew up in a very loving and nourishing family, that until today she speaks with so much tenderness about the love she received from her parents and family. She had 9 siblings of blood and grew up with 10 more other children in the house that her parents decided to support in their studies and families during the week. Can you imagine what it means to grow up in a house with 20 children? For me, it is hard to do so, but she always talks about her childhood in a very caring and loving way, as she recalls many special moments of that time in her life.
When I think about her during my childhood and teenage times, I think about this creative and loving person with so many talents. She was always singing, painting, cooking delicious food, teaching us (her grandchildren) something about nature, knitting, telling us stories, taking us for walks, singing some more, and making funny faces. My brother and I used to laugh so hard about vovó Albertina’s funny faces, I can still hear our loving laughter.
As a child, I remember discovering my grandma’s painting around the house and thinking, “Vovó Albertina painted that?! It is amazing! She is amazing!”
When I decided to write this text about her since she is still alive, instead of imagining what was the most extraordinary thing that she lived in her life, I decided to call her and ask her directly.
When I asked vovó Albertina about the most extraordinary thing that she ever experienced in her life, she suddenly started to cry and said that was the death of her son, my godfather, Fabio. I felt naïve thinking that I associated the most extraordinary thing with the situation that made me feel the happiest in life, and she associated it with the strongest feeling that she ever felt … and that was the loss of her youngest son.
I tried to welcome that, and hold the space for it … and with time, I reformulated my question, asking her what was the event in her life that made her feel the happiest. And she dribbled me again, as she answered, “I lived so many wonderful moments in all these years, things that I would never expect to live through and I don’t know from where to start.”
Fair enough, I thought, let’s try differently … so I continued, “Vó, if you think about what happiness means to you and how it feels for you, what is the first image that comes to your mind?” And she answered quickly, “I see my parents. I can feel the love of my parents.”
Thinking about this image that she shared, I realized that this is also her biggest legacy to me, her Love, and her way of loving life. Her love for herself, her love for her family, her love for nature, her love for learning, her love for playing, her love for art, her love for science, her love for people, and this is her treasure that I carry with me, in my heart, no doubt.
Vovó Albertina always made me feel loved for who I am. She teached me to love life and all about it, combining science with tons of art with it. She teached me to explore, go for my dreams and try new things, and if it didn’t work, to not worry, but dare to try it again.
An odd example that always makes me smile when my grandma showed my cousin to not be afraid of breaking eggs. An unusual way, but it translates a lot of her way of dealing with life. While baking a cake with my cousin Silvia, my grandmother had an egg in her hand, and in the middle of her explanation she broke the egg into the floor, saying gently and calmly to my cousin that, “if you happen to break an egg accidentally, no need to panic, we can clean it like this.” And she continued with the cake recipe. My cousin and I still laugh about it until this day. This was my grandmother’s way of showing Silvia that making mistakes is something normal life, and we shouldn’t be afraid of doing them.
Another of her learning that I carry dearly in my heart is a sentence that I heard her saying many times “Every day I learn something new, and I will live my life learning something new every day, until the day I die.” And so do I, Vó.
Vó, Thank you for teaching me how to love and what it feels to be loved. Thank you for being such a big example in my life of how to explore and play, how to care, and how to share.
Vovó Albertina, Te amo com todo o meu coração! E mesmo com a distância física destes últimos anos, levo comigo o seu amor e todas as nossas lembranças juntas. Te amo, te amo, te amo!
Beijo saudoso da sua neta
