My grandfather’s 100th birthday was commemorated this weekend (26th Oct 2008).
I admired him greatly as a child. As my mother recalls it, I gave my first baby smile to him and later made my first “free” footsteps towards him on the day he received the Honoris Causa at the University of Évora, my hometown. This was about a month before my first birthday (31st Jan 1980).
He passed away a couple of weeks after his 84th birthday (10th Nov 1992), I was thirteen by then and this was my first disillusion – when I realized that my grandfather and grandmother could not be eternal as I thought. Though, I knew, they weren’t young they had both such vitality and grace that one would be led to believe that age couldn’t catch up with them.
I didn’t have the chance to share a lot of moments with them because they were busy people and they lived in Lisbon. Five years later, when I did live at my grandmother’s house she was only a shadow of the woman she was when he was alive, however I was still able to learn a few things from her. These are the disadvantages of being the 25th grandchild, but I can still remember him, which my sister – the 28th grandchild and almost 10 years younger then me – can’t.
As a note I should add, especially to myself, that this will be the fate of my own children, and even more of my nephews, if either of them come to exist.
I was quite pleased with the commemorations happening this weekend and would like to leave here the link to a website created by one of my cousins:
http://proffranciscocaldeiracabral.portaldojardim.com/
there, a lot of information about his life and work is available and some testimonies can also be found. I should stress the one made by the current president of the IFLA (International Federation of Landscape Architects) last Saturday, which, besides being the only one in English for now, was very moving.
http://proffranciscocaldeiracabral.portaldojardim.com/depoimentos/depoimento-dr-diane-menzies/
He passed away a couple of weeks after his 84th birthday (10th Nov 1992), I was thirteen by then and this was my first disillusion – when I realized that my grandfather and grandmother could not be eternal as I thought. Though, I knew, they weren’t young they had both such vitality and grace that one would be led to believe that age couldn’t catch up with them.
I didn’t have the chance to share a lot of moments with them because they were busy people and they lived in Lisbon. Five years later, when I did live at my grandmother’s house she was only a shadow of the woman she was when he was alive, however I was still able to learn a few things from her. These are the disadvantages of being the 25th grandchild, but I can still remember him, which my sister – the 28th grandchild and almost 10 years younger then me – can’t.
As a note I should add, especially to myself, that this will be the fate of my own children, and even more of my nephews, if either of them come to exist.
I was quite pleased with the commemorations happening this weekend and would like to leave here the link to a website created by one of my cousins:
http://proffranciscocaldeiracabral.portaldojardim.com/
there, a lot of information about his life and work is available and some testimonies can also be found. I should stress the one made by the current president of the IFLA (International Federation of Landscape Architects) last Saturday, which, besides being the only one in English for now, was very moving.
http://proffranciscocaldeiracabral.portaldojardim.com/depoimentos/depoimento-dr-diane-menzies/
