LIVING  DRAMA

The Bracelet

It was my 40th birthday. The doorbell rang … It was a birthday gift A jewellery box. I opened it and I saw the bracelet! Oh… I was so pleased! It was my grandmother´s amazingly beautiful silver bracelet. I was instantly transported to my childhood.

Darcília was my granny on my father's side. Henrique, my father, was always my best friend, and whenever we went to her place, Granny never failed to find special moments of joy and loving care with me. Inevitably, she would invite me to her room, sit down on her bed, take her bracelet off her wrist, and she would tell stories related to some of the scenes engraved in twelve parts of the bracelet. They were stories about the monthly events in Portugal.  December was represented by a Christmas tree, February, by Carnival masks, and May I remember having grapes… That bracelet bore witness to our love.

I was in my twenties  when she passed away, but I have never forgotten those heart-warming  moments with her.

But it was one of my cousins who inherited the bracelet, and years later, when she got to know about my memories of  Granny and the bracelet,  she gave it to me… on my 40th birthday. Since then, I've worn it every single day… I felt somehow protected, more self-confident, more energetic.  Just by touching it and thinking of my granny, when needed…I felt on top of the world.

And one day I needed that inner strength so much. How sad!!! My mother passed away and I had to see to the funeral services. I put on my bracelet, and spent the whole day getting things organised. 

Later that evening, as I got home with my husband and daughters, I realized I had lost my bracelet… My mother had gone, and the bracelet, my strength had gone as well….we looked for it in every nook and corner of the house, called  the cemetery and the church, but not a sign of it.

On the following day, very early in the morning I went out for a drive and for some unknown reason drove to the cemetery. Its  entrance is on a busy road and there was a guy offering to look after the car. I parked the car, got out of it, looked into the boy's eyes and asked:

"Have you found a bracelet by any chance?"

The boy frowned, looked straight into my eyes, took something out of his pocket, and showing the bracelet he asked: 

"Are you looking for this?" I was so overwhelmed that I said "yes", hugged him and left…

But the story is not yet over… Five years later, my eldest daughter had a baby, who she called Henrique, as a tribute to my father.

And so it was that on the day of his birth, I gave my daughter the bracelet  with a  message:
From Henrique's mother (Darcília) to Henrique's mother (my daughter Paola)!