20 Years meditating at the Gerês Mountains

For twenty years she was a shepherd in Gerês Mountains, North of Portugal.
Being the youngest sister of eleven siblings, it was her task to tend to all the sheep and goats by herself in the mountains, while her brothers and sisters were going to school.

The need to read the Bible made her learn how to read and write on her own.

Her only set of clothes were worn in reverse during the week so she could used them on Sundays while in church, her only escapade from her duties since she was a child.

On her twentieth anniversary she run away to Lisbon, which was like going to a totally different planet. There she worked and got married and with her first baby on her arms she emigrated to Africa. In the mid seventies she fled the civil war in Angola and emigrated to USA starting a new life from scratch.

She became 80 years old this month. She has been a shepherd, a housewife, mother, businesswoman, grandmother and above all, a very wise teacher.

She is my mother and I am very proud of her.