My 90 year old Vovo (grandfather) passed away today. Although I am 100% certain he is in a better place for himself right now I was overcome with emotions. In the lead up to my birth my grandparents rented a flat on the beachfront in Durban to be near my mother and assure her that if she chooses to keep me and not follow through with the adoption they would help financially and take care of both of us. As it turned out my mother took them up on the offer and at 5 days old we flew to Mozambique where I lived till the revolution in September of 1974.
The two driving personality traits that I remember of my grandfather are, he took the responsibility of care taker and breadwinner very seriously and he was stubborn. At the time of the revolution he was placed under house arrest for 1 year till he made it out to Switzerland and then to Lisbon. He was a trained accountant and found a job but never fully recovered and accepted that his country was taken away from him and all he had built up materially was no longer his. His first passion was flying and he held the title in Portugal as the oldest flying pilot for longer than we’d like to know. I recall hearing how he once forgot to let the wheels out before landing but in expert Vovo style he managed to get the plane on the ground without too much damage and with no one hurt. His personal life was tricky, he took the role as male provider very seriously and I think this sometimes blinded him to what was really going on around him. It was not easy for me to communicate with him in these last few years, he spent all his time giving us all photocopies of his life, his memories, his family and sharing poems and books by Fernando Pessoa.
I will miss your presence Vovo but I know that you are happier and at peace where you are now. Thank you for giving me everything you possibly could and please say hi to David for me. I love you.
