Task 1 From Sweet Potato ( Ruby) - Ti tia !

After reading the task i thought that i would write about a Woman called Maria. She was like my grandmother. I didn’t have the chance to know any of my grandmother’s or father’s, they were gone before I was born.

So, « TI TIA » like I called her, was the grandmother‘s figure that I had. She had a dark skin tone short black hair, beautiful black eyes and this wonderful smile that used to light up a whole room. I used to stay with her every day after school; she would always have yogurt cake for me, her specialty, and when my mother was angry at me because I did something wrong I used to ran to her house and hide behind her, she would turn to my mother and say: « Ho, she’s just a child, it’s normal, she won’t do it again, won’t you Ruby?».

She had such a difficult life, her parents force her to marry an older man almost 20 years older than her, and she had 2 daughters and 4 sons, and she had to raise them alone because her husband died when all of them were just kids. She worded as road sweeper, working from early morning to night just to feed her children .She taught me so many things like being humble and try to be positive although things may seem dark and hopeless. I spent most of my time with her, since my mother worded all day.
I love cats and dogs, and that’s because of her, she had a cat and she taught me all about caring for animals and how they sometimes are more faithful than human beings. Since then I always had a pet, cat or dog doesn’t matter, it reminds me of her.

She was a big fan of Fado and Amália Rodrigues, so I remember that every weekend she would sit on the floor and put her old radio to play and she would just sigh, I didn’t understood it then, but now I do, she felt lonely, there was no family around and she faced night after night alone and having me around her was her joy as she was mine.
I was 20 years old when she died. Cancer took her smile and I saw it fading away through chemotherapy. Every time I look at her house I still see her waving and smiling at me.
She was very important to me and wherever she is now, I know she is looking down on me and watching over me.