The members of the family are THE reason to make our livelihood essentially interesting. It is with them that we share our good and bad moments. And it is "because of them" that we care. It is from them that we obtain so many times courage during the hardest of some of our moments in life. It is with them that e live, close or far away, our course in this World and the small and big things which mark our existence.

Part of my family lives far from here. Because I had a kind of uneven life course, I was born and lived many years at Oporto, that sometimes greyish city full of history everywhere and with many beautiful places to see and remember. It is there where my two oldest sons of my first marriage live and work, João and Marta.

João is devoted to what I consider the art of design, with a small company established by him and other friends and where they fight for business and loose many hours of sleep. With not many years of life but already a few ups and downs, he faces everything with a peace of mind and a calm and collected attitude I think he is the only one in the family capable of. My only male "sprout" and the first to see daylight on 1975, during the Portuguese post-revolutionary period, with which he had obvious empathies during his first years... Also after a few bumpy professional and personal phases in life, he reencountered stability of heart with Ofélia and, AT LAST I am a grandfather-to-be. João Henrique, my first and hopefully not last grandson.
 

Marta, born in 1978 and with a calmer childhood, has on the other hand, these days sometimes a few volcanic eruptions with which, to tell the truth, I identify myself perfectly. For some time she searched a vocational career until she settled for tourism. She had also her share of emotional accidents in life, which seem to be part of nearly everybody nowadays, but she is emerging from the rough sea of sentimental downhill with good sense and the wise vision she is gifted with. As I have been mentioning, happiness for all my children being my most cherished dream, I hope she will find soon a peaceful harbour to carry on her life in tranquillity.

Vila Real, Trás-os-Montes, that mountainous region I often miss, is where my Mother, my sister Alcina and brother-in-law Jorge live. Mother Elvira is somewhat eroded by time, but still keeps a vividness I would like to have at her age, born in 1920. My young sister is "only" 14 years younger than me, and she was the baby in the family when she was born in 1961. For reasons that had to do with her academic course and work opportunity, she lives and works at that north-eastern city. Where I spent good times, I, who have always preferred the countryside peace and the mountain tranquillity to the stress of big cities.

Having come to Madeira quite a number of years ago, I have been around some time until I found... Lígia. Funny, if a few years ago someone would ask me if I would get married again, I would reply in an impolite way. But after we met, I jumped with body and soul into the second matrimony. And so it was done! She has always been by my side, supporting me the way she knows, even on those moments when I miss "the other side" and make me silent and absent minded. Lígia is "only" 20 years younger than me (21, to be precise) and she is responsible for having filled what I call the downhill phase of my life with well-being and peace with the World not easy to describe in words.

From this marriage, two children were born. Carlota and Sofia. Yes, when I was old enough to be a grandfather with what that means in terms of tranquillity, armchair and tv, I became father again...

Carlota, born in 2002, is a caring and sweet girl, although sometimes a few bad temper minutes can arise from her when she feels annoyed. Leading a happy life, although we are what sometimes is considered "old times parents" in what we try to teach her one cannot have always what one wishes, when one wishes. We deeply believe this kind oif education is the right one to prepare children for adult life. She is a sensitive girl, too, who loves animals, which I think she inherited from myself (Lígia also loves animals, but not as able as we are of coming into very friendly terms with many...). Physically, Carlota has resemblances with me, but a lot more with Ligia. To her advantage, obviously...

Sofia is, for everything that matters the most recent element of the family. Having seen the World in 2007, in her still short lifetime she has been gifted with good moments, and is a happy baby. She is nearly always smiling even when getting out of bed, almost permanently in a good mood, the kind people on the streets call a "friendly baby"", smiling to all those who give her a bit of attention. Which does not keep her from being in sulks from time to time (sometimes more than we would like to...), and from being demanding about what she wants. Well, at least she keeps trying...

Of course I shall not miss mentioning the other members of this family, Ligia's father, José Manuel, Ligia's mother Victoria, her sister Branca and grandmother Ana, who is at what some nasty people call the "condor age", which has some meaning only in Portuguese (com dor here, com dor there = aching here, aching there...). She has the privileged of being a grandmother. Incidentally, this grandfather/grandmother thing is becoming a bit of an obsession.

Ligia's ancestors have also on their turn, had an uneven life course, maybe meaning that the lives of all characters in this history have led a somewhat chequered life... Her grandmother Ana already lived in  Madeira at her infancy, then returned to Lisbon and settled there, married and got widow, and came to Madeira again because her son has commissioned to the island by the company he worked for many years, Radio Marconi. He was prematurely retired when the social and labour instability caused by the 1974 Portuguese revolution originated many precarious situations. Maria Victoria, Ligia's mother, who had also done diverse things in life, among which running a kinder garden, entered a professional public career, therefore they settled in Madeira for ever. The daughters, were of course born and grew in the island. Another bizarre fact of the family past is that a Ligia's great-grand-father lived and died in Madeira, where he was married to a lady from S. Vicente. The twists and turns of life...