“One day we were at my grandmother´s home when all of the sudden, I started hearing this glass tinkling sounds coming from the cupboard. My grandmother told me quickly to go wake up my dad and we all ran outside. Everyone was outside. It was one of the big ones!”

“I grew up in the time of the WW2 so all food was rationed. One day I would go get food with my mother, the next day I would go get food with my grandmother to see if we could get some extra food.”

“One of my fondest memories of my grandmother was the smell of this “ginja” jam she used to make. I have never smelled another “ginja” jam quite like hers.”

“The toughest moment in my life was my marriage. I had a very complicated marriage shadowed by abuse and a lot of deaths. ”

“I will never forget the smell of the fresh herbs on the fields coming up to my grandmothers village.”

“I never met my parents, my mother passed away of hunger while breastfeeding me”

“I was visiting my son and my daughter-in-law in France when her waters broke. My son asked me to go get help. I was terrified as I didn´t speak french. I rang the next door neighbour´s bell. Luckily she was brasilian so we could speak in portuguese. I went back inside to stay with my granson while my son was with his pregnant wife in the room beside ours. My son screams my name. I rush in the bedroom to find my son already holding my granddaughter´s head. Zoe was born!”

“By the time I was 6 years old I had to quit school as I needed to help my parents with our farm on Cabo Verde and I needed to help raising my brothers and sisters.”