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| Lionilde Pimentel prima de Joao Jacinto Pimentel - filha de Vitorino Pimentel e sua esposa Franca - e mae da Sao |
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| Dona Lionilde was truly the saintliest woman to be found amongst a selection of them already present in vast numbers throughout the Pimentel Clan. Soft-spoken, kind-hearted, always with a smile upon her face, devoted as a mother, daughter and wife, dependable, generous, pious and with great faith in the Lord, Dona Lionilde was an example by which all other women in this family are to be measured by. In her maiden years, Dona Lionilde thought seriously about giving in to her vocational aspirations and becoming a nun - however, it was her family's wishes that she marry and found a family instead, and so she would. Her heart's choice for the best man any woman could want or have for husband was not to be her spouse though; her cousin Joao Jacinto was soon betrothed to another. Dona Lionilde was heard and quoted saying then "the lass who will marry Joao Jacinto will be truly blessed - Jose and Gilberto are good men too, but among the Pimentels, Joao is better. He is, by far, the kindest and gentlest of them all - what a fine husband he will make." For such a good judge of character, Dona Lionilde would be led into a marriage that she would have never advised anyone to agree to. in all likelihood. Her eventual husband would be the opposite of Joao Jacinto in several aspects - and a divorce would eventually be pronounced. An annulment would have been better - but it was too late by then, as several children had been born already (men such as that Medina are what they call in Quebec "des chauds lapins", you see...) and the jagged road had been undertaken already, as the little family moved to Quebec, Canada in the 1970s, leaving the paradise-like Acores for the "inferno do inverno Quebequense", something I'll never understand any Acoreano would do...! The three daughters that got to stay there became, de facto and overnight, "true quebecoises" (adapting to their adoptive society above and beyond the call of social duty) much to the chagrin of their mother who was, after all, a Portuguese traditionalist... Dona Lionilde's husband, for his part, was not faithful to her... It was heartbroken and dispirited that Lionilde turned to God once more. She lived out the rest of her life as a true spouse of Christ indeed, as she had always wanted. She even obtained the right, in her lifetime, to don the garments of a nun and to be buried in them. Her worrying about her daughters - particularly Fatinha, Terezinha and, yes, Saozinha as well - and other pressures life brought her way would eventually be too much for her frail constitution and delicate structure which was further fragilized by the precarity of her health. She cared for all and she could not care so intensely - and it turned out to be very detrimental to her own health. Her mother, Dona Franca, had the heartache to see her daughter die first. Dona Lionilde's friends (Dona Luciana, Dona Maria Adelina and many more) have missed her greatly ever since. Personally, I think of Dona Lionilde Pimentel every year when the meteors named Leonids come around in great numbers, fittingly in the month of November. Saozinha recorded, on a demo CD, a song dedicated to the memory of her dear mother that is titled "Leonie (Mon Amie)". +++ |
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| I wonder if Saozinha realizes how close it came to be that, today, she and I would be... brother and sister!? I guess that was destined to remain firmly entrenched in the land of "what if..." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Sister Lucia Dos Santos - in many ways, the role model for the also quite admirable Lionilde Pimentel - � qui elle ressemble d'ailleurs! |
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| Two other greater-than-great role-models are, of course, THERESE DE LISIEUX and BERNADETTE DE SOUBIROUX | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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