My Grandparents Story - Part 2
- MitaZ'z
- Dec 8, 2017
- 5 min read
I am finally here with Part 2 of my family's history. It took a while as I went to Lisbon to stay with my untie and came back to a busy week. When I was there I was able to interview my dad, uncle, untie and my grandmother and got to learn a lot about my family's past.
Just like Part 1 of this blog, I will start with were my parents grew up, and how they meet and then more about their journey.
Without further ado, ...
My Grandmother was born in 1930 in Beira, Mozambique. Her parents were both born in Goa, which is situated in India. Due to a war that accord in India, her parents migrated to Mozambique, the year is unknown as my grandmother does not remember the dates. Her father found a job in a drink manufacturer as the lorry driver and her mother was a house wife, as in that time woman didn't work.
My grandmother has 2 sisters and 3 brothers and she's the 4th youngest. Unfortunately, all of her sisters and brothers passed away now of old age.
Grandad was born in 1925, in Lourenço Marques, which is now known as Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. His parents were also born in Goa, and migrated to Mozambique in Lourenço Marques, (Maputo) for the same war at that time but again the dates are unknown to my grandmother, and was not able to ask my grandad as he passed away last year. He's dad was a founder of metal parts for trains and his mother was also a house wife. He had 3 sisters and 2 brothers, sadly 1 sister and 1 brother passed away a few years ago.
Grandad's sister married grandmother's brother and that’s when they meet at their wedding. Grandmother was 13 and grandad 18. After they meet they started to write letters to each other. When grandmother went to study in a English college in Rhodesia in Zimbabwe situated in South Africa, grandad was being transferred to Nampula, North of Mozambique. They got together in time, and got married in Lourenço Marques in 1952.
My dad, Joao, was born in 1953. In that year grandad was transferred to Joao Belo, known as Xai-Xai, due to his work he had to stay there for 3 years and was an easy move as the work offered grandad a house and amazing living conditions.
Grandparents also travelled a lot. After having, untie Ze and uncle Rui, they went on to travel for 7 months, they went Portugal, Spain, Gibraltar, France, they went with a group of friends and they made amazing memories and took a lot of pictures.
My family explained to me that, in that time, there was none who was poor, everyone had enough to make a living. Everything was affordable even if you earned very little.
After Xai-Xai they moved to Magudo as grandad was offered a job as a secretary director once again he was entitled a house and extra pay.
In 1976 they moved to Portugal, because of the revolution that was going on, Mozambique was a colony and the people that won the election at the time were bad. My grandparents and my youngest untie moved first in to Portugal, then dad and untie Ze came a few weeks later and finally uncle Rui once he finished his college.
Grandparents and untie Claudia came to Portugal and first stayed at a family friends house for a little while and then moved to live in a care home for foreign people that came to live and work in Portugal. At that day and age those care homes where like hotels and it was very good to live in one of them. Same happen to my dad, untie and uncle, but they were located to live in different located rooms. They all moved quite a lot.
They moved to their new apartment in September in 1982, where my untie got to celebrate her 10th birthday and they had a lot of friends coming over, in events and dinners, my grandparents would receive over 70 guests.
That apartment belongs to my family and it is 32 years old. that apartment is remembered being with the door always open to friends, grandmother would cook and people would just randomly come over, they never needed to be invited and they would always bring food, it sounds really nice, but I know that if this was in our days, it would be very annoying because this generation is not that close and free anymore, just focused on social media and screens.
My Grandad past away in 2016, at the age of 91, he lived an amazing life and we all miss him very much.
My grandmother is still alive and she not long ago turned 87.
My dad worked at finances but when he moved to Portugal, he couldn't come back and work in a bank as he did not work in finances long enough to be transferred. He's first work in Portugal was a secretary in EDP (Electric company) where he then met my mum in 1982, as she worked opposite to him. Dad had my older sister Lily, then Jessica and then me. He is now retired and a grandfather as my sister Jessica gave us little Lily.
Untie Ze worked both in finances and as a radio speaker when she was in Mozambique, which at that time was really popular and made my youngest untie Claudia wondered how she got inside of the radio and she also wanted to get inside there.
She worked one job in Portugal because she was waiting to be called in to work in a bank but the care house she was in, they were asking for workers to move to Switzerland, so she took the job, the bank did call her back but she was already in Switzerland. There she went to work there in a hotel, but more about that in another part. My untie got married, has 2 sons, Patrick and Alan. They all live in Switzerland.
Uncle Rui came specially for my Untie Claudia's birthday and she told me as she remembered, that uncle Rui came to surprise her and brought her a basketball, which she loves, cherish and still has it somewhere in the house. Uncle got a job in a bank which he still works in, got married and only as one son, Ivan.
My unite Claudia is always very busy and had a lot of amazing different jobs, she also went to the military and now works as a secretary and has my youngest cousin Tiago.
It was really nice asking this questions to all of my family because they had a look back at their memories, they had a laugh and fun remembering all of those memories. I also found out that we still have family in Mozambique and I am always welcome to come and visit although I never meet them before.
Uncle Rui's memory: "Our family is extremely nice, but it has a down side to it. A family friend run over my beautiful yellow bike, and the "nice man" that run over my bike with his truck said he would pay for it but grandparents said no because they felt sorry for the man, as he felt really guilty but they didn't buy me a new bike either, since then I never got to ride a bike again." (Tried to translate as best that I could.)
I hope you guys enjoyed this little story about my family and I will keep updating as I travel. Let me know what you think in the comments below and don't forget to like and share this post.
Maria xx
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