Love Lasts a Lifetime
by Ana Braga-Henebry in Homemaking on Friday, September 03, 2010 6:00 AM
Although her birthday is in the first week of August, the whole end of summer brings my dear auntie (Lygia Antunes de Oliveira) to mind.
She was a second mother to me and is a huge part of my life. She was always there, helping with the “younger ones”, a category to which I still belong to this day, being the seventh of ten children. She would babysit, decorate, bake, and help with homework, speech-writing and poetry-memorizing. She would rejoice with us and comfort us when needed. She may have never attended a psychology class, but she seemed to always know what to say that was soothing and helpful, and at the right time.
My childhood is simply filled with sweet memories of Auntie Lygia!
My mother’s only sibling, when she was in her teens, a pretty, talented, spunky young lady, she chose to go to a “feminine arts” preparatory institute with the certainty that she would be married very shortly. My mother, the scholarly, quiet and composed of the inseparable sisterly pair, went on to study Latin and Greek in the Catholic Classical Collegium. Unaware of the fact that she would soon be married and go on to have ten children, my mother went on exploring Latin and Greek roots, earning consistently the highest marks, while her sister enjoyed walks by the beach with friends.
Bonded forever in united love with loss of their beloved, artistic and delightful father in their teen years, the sisters were inseparable until the death of my dearest mother last year. Auntie lived with my Grandmother Helena Dubeux, a strong, talented and wonderful lady from a traditional Brazilian northeast family, where roots run deep and traditions are the stuff of intense fiction.
Their house was across the street when I was little, and when we moved during my teen years my parents bought a house with a second master’ suite. They moved with us and it made so much sense to have them always near, teaching, praying, engaged in interesting conversation. And there were always stories ...
Auntie has told us this story again and again, and among all of her personal stories this is my favorite: on her first and only trip to Europe, in a tour bus through Alpine villages, the passengers noticed a light, pretty snowfall ... The bus driver pulled over so the South Americans, who had never seen snow, could step outside and feel the snow miracle snow is.
It happened to be my auntie’s birthday—and she was thankful to God for such a wondrous gift. That’s when she noticed a tiny chapel, a roadside shrine, and went to it to say a prayer of thanksgiving. As she entered, she was astounded to find out the shrine was dedicated to Our Lady of the Snows, her dearest patron saint, and on her own feast day!
Stories such as this one graced our dinner table, but it was her after-dinner stories that filled our imagination and kept us begging for more. She was an master story teller, and would tell us stories of films and books she had read in the most interesting, intricate way. We were truly spellbound, most especially during the many evenings in our summer home where electricity only arrived when I was about ten years old. I can still smell the kerosene lamps and hear her loving, talented storytelling voice.
My dear auntie has been immobile for many years now, always tied to a bed or a chair, having to be served food, changed, bathed, dressed. She asks for nothing, expect that we place her rosary in her hands as we say goodnight. For everything she is grateful.
When I am in Brazil, being with her fills my heart with love with admiration, with the inspiring example of a suffering yet joyous and grateful life. And I can, as I have, always count on her prayers.
God gives us people who become treasure troves of example for us, if we only learn to recognize it. My auntie, elderly, bound to her chair, in the corner of the room all day, could pass unnoticed. But not to the ones who love and know her. Not to the ones who count on her prayers. Not to the ones who are so grateful for her giving-life, and who enjoy her company, even if not often enough.
— Ana Braga-Henebry has a Masters Degree in Humanities from the University of Texas at Dallas. She has written myriad articles for Catholic homeschool periodicals, has been writing book reviews for over ten years, and blogs from the family acreage in South Dakota.
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