13.12.2008

December.18.2008 at 7:47 pm · Filed under Uncategorized and tagged: andrea, birthdays, mozambique, vó madalena

turning 29 wasn’t supposed to be such an important year. usually i’m just happy with a bog cake, singing twenty times the same song “happy birthday”, get calls, smss, emails and eventually presents… allright, i’ll confess i anxiously await my presents. i’ve always been this way, i’ve always liked December 13th. 

this year everything seems different. i woke up on this day and saw a beautiful sun! for the first time in my life my birthday wasn’t flowing with rain but with an amazing ocean! i was in africa, more precisely swimming in the Indian Ocean… transparent as water, warm as paradise beaches should be and surrounded by sunshine. i had my sister with me after 6 years of only hearing her say “parabéns” through the phone, i had new friends (blond and blue eyed friends!), and i heard that cute song in my own language again!!! i was having a great day, with a few presents but with so much love and care around me.

and then the phone rang once more, and i hear her voice for the last time. part of me accepted it, part of me ignored it for myself selfishly and also for my sister who is still too little to get hurt… to me. Vó Madalena, the most beautiful name ever, said like always in a unrecognizable voice “don’t forget to pray to the Holy Spirit, he will guide you” and i did that night, for her.  i believe she knew what was going on, and i believe we both knew what was about to happen. my mother still talked to me crying but wishing me the best of my life while she held her mother’s hand and cried in silence.

in the most selfish way i did enjoy that day. i, like i said, ignored the fact that far away from me there was a room in an Old People’s Home where there were no smiles, just prayers and hope. 

i turned 29 in a country where my own grandmother arrived when she was 29 years old… she passed on to me something so big i hope i will be able to make her proud. maybe it’s history all over again… or maybe it’s just her way of saying happy birthday

a fashion statement

a good first happy birthday song! with a microphone and everything!

picnic at the beach with another magic song

instead of like always having water coming from above… i was literally surrounded by this green ocean

just the girls…

and a special day

cute

need my beauty sleep, the sun is the best sleeping pill even on your birthday

happy birthday to me

best gift? there were few but so nice, and i can’t deny it, i finally saw aldo take over the wheel and enjoyed looking at the view just like everyone else!

to all of you who sent messages, emails, facebook notes, who called and who in a way or another thought of my special day i thank you, i hope you realised how happy i am to have you in my life. i am very lucky… thank you, it’s been 29 years, some of you less but still all so important to me. 

Comments (1)