Image description: The image is a colorful illustration featuring three groups of people arranged horizontally, from left to right. On the far left, we see two women and a boy smiling and interacting. The woman on the left has long, wavy hair and is wearing a light green top and black pants. The boy is sitting on her lap, with a friendly smile. To her right, another woman with long, white hair is sitting on the floor, also smiling. She is wearing a dark green top and black pants. In the center, two women are standing, both smiling and looking to the right. One of them has long, wavy hair and is wearing a light green dress, while the other has long, white hair and is also wearing a light green dress. On the right, a group of people stands in front of an open refrigerator, looking excited and happy. The refrigerator is white with green details. All the figures have long, colorful hair and are wearing various pastel-toned clothes.Listen to an excerpt from the letter narrated by its author, Isabelle.
Rio de Janeiro, May 7, 2021.
Dear great-grandmother Maria,
I am so happy to write you a letter.
My mother tells me many stories about you. Especially from when she was little, she used to stay at the edge of your apron, and you would say, "Rasteparta, this girl just won't sit still!"
My mother still keeps your prayer notebook, which has some records you wrote about your life. She teaches us to take care of this notebook as a family heirloom. She reads it to me and always shows how much she loves you, how you were a great example for her, and that if you were alive you would love me and my brother. That you always used to say she would fulfill her wish of having a beautiful pair of children, just as she always dreamed of.
Unfortunately, we are in a pandemic. Her son Henrique, who was like an uncle to me, passed away due to this plague. Her daughter Maria Belizanda, or as I used to call her, "dada," my godmother, also passed away due to cancer.
I hope they're up there in heaven with you, watching over our whole family. Fortunately, my grandmother Marina, your daughter Teresa, your son Paulo, and your son Neca are doing well, as far as possible, during this time of so much uncertainty.
I hope you're proud of me and my mother. May our choices follow the path of happiness that you wished for us. And may you help, from up there, my brother with his existential conflicts, guiding him toward a promising future.
With love,
Belle.
