_{Raquel from Brazil}

Raquel Albano Scopinho and her two sons arrived in Canada in January 2022, leaving their home country Brazil behind after the passing of her spouse. After arriving to Canada, Raquel studied ESL at Sheridan College. Her ultimate goal is to ensure her sons' happiness and witness the birth of her grandchildren.

A Turning Point in My Life 

by Raquel Albano Scopinho

I am going to tell you about an event that was the most important turning point of my life (at least till today). 

When I was 23 years old, I wanted to be an independent woman in many ways, and my goals were to study hard, get to know as many things as possible, work and have a solid career. Then, I would be able to travel around the world. 

I decided to move to another country, and I chose Italy. When I got there, I shared a flat with Nadia. After one year, Nadia introduced me to one of her friends, Savio. Savio had been a Catholic priest for more than 10 years. He was in Italy finishing his PhD in Theology, and he would be claimed as Bishop as soon as he came back to Brazil. 

He was extremely intelligent, a compulsive reader, a wise man, and a very nice person. Although our life interests were pretty much different, we became close friends. I found someone to talk to about many subjects, to discuss historical facts, political issues, and religious doctrines (which was the biggest point of disagreement). 

Two years later, we fell in love, but I wasn’t planning to be in a serious relationship because I wanted to be free to study, to work, to travel. And for him, it was worse, because he was a priest almost becoming a Bishop and he wasn’t allowed to have a relationship with a woman. 

But our love won! We decided to change our lives and get married. We were a perfect couple; we used to do everything together. We used to teach at the same university, do all the housework together, study together, go to the gym or go shopping together, go out with friends or family, travel, whatever. We used to spend most of the day together and happy. Extremely happy! There were no secrets between us, we used to talk about everything. Sometimes we had different points of view, especially about our sons’ education, but we always got to an in-between point. 

But life is not perfect, and four years ago, Savio had a heart attack. It was so fast! In about two seconds, I lost my best friend, my best colleague, partner, my sons’ father…. So, I felt completely lost. 

After a while, I understood that I’d had the unique opportunity to know what true love is. We had two wonderful boys, a beautiful, shared life, and now I carry with me the memories, remarkable memories, and I am so grateful for that. 

Did he become a bishop? No! 

Did I travel the world? No! 

But we got better, we loved and were loved.  

And I have many wonderful memories that I can keep in my mind every day and they make my life really nice.