Back in 1969 a very special baby was born…his name was given after our father “Silvio”… we were only months apart, and our father had gone to the colonies war in Africa leaving my mom with me in her lap and pregnant of my brother… When MY BROTHER came to this earth he was born VERY sick; and for the first months of his life we almost lost him. The Military even allowed my daddy to come back to Europe to see my brother Silvio alive, since the Dr’s didn’t think that he was going to live much longer. Gosh he meant everything to me and all the months that he was in that hospital room… mommy and I would walk a huge distance and sleep outside the hospital, just so we could be closer to him.
Our Lord was so compassionate and allowed my Silvio to gradually recover from his illness… I was his older sister and was also a brat… I didn’t coach him as well as I should when we were growing up… but for my own credit…my brother was not much older than I was lol. I made him go fishing those fishes that have huge heads and turn into frogs and made him eat them alive… and whatever I said, he did it. Everything that I liked my little brother liked it as well… My favorite fruit was pomegranate and so it will not come as a shock to ya’ll that my brother‘s favorite fruit was the same. Oh boy did we love to play with those plastic toys…my parents got us four “enemies” war plastic toys…”German’s and British and Cowboys and Indians. Silvio was ALWAYS GERMAN and I was always BRITISH… Now in the American wars, I was ALWAYS THE INDIANS and Silvio was the COWBOYS!!! POIS :D
We spent most of our times in the same schools, our friends were the same, we were/and are both crazy about our little brother NUNO MIGUEL. Silvio didn’t know how to say my name, so since I was a little girl, his nickname to me was always “KIKAS”… and I always called him “SLY”.
My brother was my first best friend, the first person that I ever gave my trust to, we were always together, and spent all the time making crazy things that drove my parent’s crazy lol.
Now my wonderful brother turned 41 years old… I want to wish you Happy Birthday my darling. I wish I could have been there with you, I wish that you had a blast and above everything… I wish that it was healthy, full of a bright and strong future. You mean the world to me Silvio, and having you as my “Twin Brother” is a gift from Heaven that I have no clue how to even start to describe to thank you little brother. We lived so many adventures and we were accomplices to every fun, cool, ridiculous, not smart, bright adventures…and any time we were disobedient, or when we were the perfect children, when I had to call our school pretending that I was my mom just to get us out of class and go play soccer…Oh yeah…We were quite the duo. We were two tigers defending each other and later on in life defending our brother Nuno… Silvio and I endured so much together… When one was sick the other had to stay home as well… Our soccer team was always the same, our best friends were the same, our goals were the same…our passion for the beach…he was always my co-conspirator in all my strategic plans lol. When I cut my leg by falling two stories and cutting deeply my leg, just to save a bird that had fallen out of his nest… my mom was desperate, but my brother Silvio was right next to her for a whole night at the E.R. watching me get stitched, while crying and screaming at me for being so stupid and then holding me and apologizing, just to start all over again…lol
We indeed lived so much together…I was the first person who my brother Silvio shared that he had had his first kiss. It was also to me that he confided that he had gone a bit further, months after…and YES it was also me who put a cast on his leg for kicking him so hard and punished him for doing it. Neither one of us ever explained to my parents why I beat up my brother using the techniques that I had learned in Judo… I was grounded and got a “beat” of a lifetime from my dad… but I never told them why I had treated my best friend, my confident, my hero, my brother that all the girls in school wanted to date…my BROTHER. I made a quest to prove to my brother just how he deserved better and how that girl didn’t deserve him…I succeeded. But truth be told, my brother also didn’t like my first boyfriend and thought that he was a loser… my brother one day asked me to seat down with him and have a talk (We had and still have MANY heart to heart talks), and my brother told me that I was in love with “Andy”, the love of my life, and Andy was in love with me as well, and it was heartbreaking that neither one of us wanted to admit it and kept deceitfully omitting to each other and to ourselves about our true feelings towards each other”. Of Course I told him that he was sooooo wrong, plus Andy and I had other people in our lives… But yeah… my brother Silvio could read me like an open book…
When I left to Brazil, we wrote to each other every day and same when I returned to Portugal and Sly went to Germany… We had a song that Rod Steward sang that we made our song every time we were away from home and we missed each other too much… Or we missed a love we lost or left behind…We would play this song nonstop on each other’s voice mail… Somehow this song reminded us that we had someone who cared to hear us and missed us and was there for one another. Yep, I had a cool Brother…The song goes like this…
"Trough these misty eyes I see lonely skies lonely road to Babylon. Where’s my family and my country? Heaven knows where I belong. Pack my bags tonight Here's one human being who must leave or surely die. Put me on a train in the pouring rain Say farewell but don't say good-bye. Seagull carries me over land and sea to my own folks that's where I wanna be. Every beat of my heart tears me further apart I'm lost and alone in the dark I'm going home! One more glass of wine just for a last goodbye: And the love I left behind. How I miss it now in my darkest hour and the way our arms entwine. Seagull carry over land and sea . . . And we'll drink a toast to the blood of the red rose Cheer a while the Emerald Isle. And to the northern lights and the swirling pipes How they make a grown person cry. Seagull carry me over land and sea . . . Every beat of my heart tears me further apart I'm lost and I'm alone in the dark I'm going home ! I'm going home!"
You are always with me…I know that we have a continent, a whole ocean in between us, and so many heath issues… but to be honest my lovely brother, you are ONLY one remembrance and recollection away. I LOVE YOU… I always have loved you my brother and I always will love you. Don’t forget that the only sister that Our Lord ever gave you (ME) thinks that you are the best “almost older” brother that any sister could ever bargain for. I looked at the last pictures we took together and we were both crying so much and when I looked at your tears, I started to cry so much… I could see just how much I do mean to you. And you know what Sly? You will always be my “almost twin brother”. Jessica has a passion for my brother Silvio that is amazing, she gives everything to always be next to him and always says “Mommy, uncle Silvio is just like you, you two are so much alike, it’s weird and wonderful to see you both joking because it’s like a feminine and masculine version of two siblings with the same jokes and same humor and even look in some way alike”. I gotta say Silvio… You took after me… and that is sooo cool, cause gosh dang it bro, you needed to take after the best lol. I love you J
Love you with all my heart. Happy Birthday kiddo :D
Your Only Sister,
