"A minha avo, se estivesse viva, tinha feito 106 anos no dia 28 de Dezembro de ano passado"
"My grandmother, if she had lived, would have turned 106 years old on December 28 of last year"
I had called my grandmother "Vovo", she had lived with me and my parents for years when I was a child. My cousins in Rhode Island didn't see her very often (although they actually spoke Portuguese at home and even went to school for it). They called her "Avo" (accent on the last vowel).
Most of my Portuguese words exist as affectionate diminutives. Auntie="Titia" vs what grownups say when they discuss an aunt ("Tia"). I was taught how to address grownups as a child and now I must be old enough not to be corrected anymore. And it is certainly rare (and amusing enough) for someone my age to be using the language of children.
She was wonderful. She gave birth to 9 children. She rarely laughed, but when she did it lit up the room.
I realized just the other day that I don't remember talking to her. Or her having conversations with me, or telling me stories. It breaks my heart now, but it never occurred to me then that I was missing all of her life experience. Nothing new, kids don't listen to their elders anyway. You can't measure the loss of human exchange when there is a language barrier.
I remember her cooking, though. And no one else in my family can match it, even though they have exactly the same recipes.
"My grandmother, if she had lived, would have turned 106 years old on December 28 of last year"
I had called my grandmother "Vovo", she had lived with me and my parents for years when I was a child. My cousins in Rhode Island didn't see her very often (although they actually spoke Portuguese at home and even went to school for it). They called her "Avo" (accent on the last vowel).
Most of my Portuguese words exist as affectionate diminutives. Auntie="Titia" vs what grownups say when they discuss an aunt ("Tia"). I was taught how to address grownups as a child and now I must be old enough not to be corrected anymore. And it is certainly rare (and amusing enough) for someone my age to be using the language of children.
She was wonderful. She gave birth to 9 children. She rarely laughed, but when she did it lit up the room.
I realized just the other day that I don't remember talking to her. Or her having conversations with me, or telling me stories. It breaks my heart now, but it never occurred to me then that I was missing all of her life experience. Nothing new, kids don't listen to their elders anyway. You can't measure the loss of human exchange when there is a language barrier.
I remember her cooking, though. And no one else in my family can match it, even though they have exactly the same recipes.
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