A carta que chegou tarde (The letter that arrived late)
QECR B1242 palavras
In March a letter arrived at my parents' house with a stamp from 1986 and my grandmother's name on it. Nobody in the post office could explain where it had been for thirty-eight years.
My grandmother died in 2011, so my father opened it. It was two pages long and it was from her sister, who had emigrated to Switzerland and who died even earlier, in 2004. The letter said that the winter had been hard, that the factory was closing, and that she was thinking of coming home in the summer.
She never came home. The two sisters wrote to each other for years and then, at some point in the late eighties, they stopped. Nobody in my family knows why, and now there is nobody left to ask.
My father read the letter twice and then he did something I did not expect: he photocopied it and sent a copy to his cousin in Zurich, the son of the woman who wrote it. His cousin phoned four days later. They had not spoken since a funeral in 1998.
They now talk on the first Sunday of every month. My father is seventy-three and his cousin is sixty-nine, and neither of them has said a word about why the two sisters stopped writing. My father says it does not matter any more, and that the letter arrived exactly when it was useful, which is not the same as arriving on time.
Palavras que talvez não conheças
- stampselo
- post officecorreios
- to emigrateemigrar
- to photocopyfotocopiar
- funeralfuneral
- on timea horas
Perguntas
Respondem-se com o texto à frente. Não é memória: é perceber.
The letter had a stamp from ___.
1986 — A stamp from 1986, e ninguém nos correios sabe explicar onde esteve trinta e oito anos.
Why did the writer's father open the letter?
Because his mother, to whom it was addressed, had died — É preciso juntar duas frases: a carta ia em nome da avó, e a avó morreu em 2011. O SO de «my grandmother died in 2011, so my father opened it» é a costura.
The woman who wrote the letter came home that summer.
False — Falso: na carta diz que está a PENSAR nisso, e o parágrafo seguinte começa com «she never came home». Pensar não é fazer.
What did the father do that surprised the writer?
He sent a copy of the letter to his cousin in Zurich — Fotocopiou-a e enviou-a ao filho da mulher que a escreveu. Quatro dias depois, o primo telefonou.
How long had the two cousins gone without speaking?
About twenty-six years — O texto não dá os anos: é preciso subtrair. Não falavam desde um funeral em 1998 e a carta chega em março deste ano, trinta e oito anos depois de 1986, ou seja 2024. De 1998 a 2024 vão vinte e seis.
What does the father mean by 'it arrived when it was useful, which is not the same as on time'?
That the letter was late, but it did something good anyway — Separa duas ideias que costumamos confundir: pontual e útil. Chegou tarde para as duas irmãs, que já morreram, e a tempo para os dois primos, que agora falam todos os meses.