Once upon a time there was a little girl called Maria Irani. She was the oldest child. The one responsible for the other siblings and for the house chores.
She used to live in a small town. Mostly rural. She worked hard since an early age.

Maria was a beautiful girl. With tan skin, blond and wavy hair and a dark shade of green eyes. She had a perfect body and the boys would fall over for her.
She had this sad look in her eyes and a wide, honest and shinning smile in her lips.
Nobody could turn their heads away from such a pretty girl.

On the other side of the same town. Used to live the youngest boy of his family. He lost his father when still a baby. Living on a farm, always working so hard to help bringing food home. He learned how to be rational and not ever let the emotions take over anything.
He wasn't the most reasonable person. But he had a special way to deal with animals. Specially horses. And everybody would come after him to ask for favors. As it was a mostly rural town. Horses were vary valuable at that time.

His name was Benedito. And he was a not so tall boy. Skin darkened from the exposure to the sun and the hard work at the farm. Light green eyes. Very expressive face. Mostly serious and impenetrate.

He was a cowboy. Used to participate on Rodeos and used to be very good at it.

One day, while on top of his horse, his light green eyes met the dark green eyes of Maria Irani.
The time stopped...

Benedito was back to his horse, which was jumping frenetically trying to take him down. But Benedito was too good to let it happen and won over the animal.

Afterwards...Benedito saw Maria Irani again. But also saw a few more guys trying to catch her attention and buying her goods. He soon got frustrated as he didn't have any money to buy anything to her and had nothing to say to start a conversation. He was shy and had such a pride to carry. He would never make a move at that moment.

Maria Irani went home thinking about the serious guy on the horse. And Benedito went home punishing himself for being such a coward.

Days passed by...and they lived in the same small town. An encounter wasn't impossible. It became very possible..and very often.
They couldn't believe everytime they walked by each other.

Benedito once tried a little greeting. Taking off his hat and looking her in the eyes. She responded with a killer smile. The smile that took his breath away.

Benedito thought "I need to win this girl."
Maria Irani thought "I wish he noticed me".

As they walked by each other, they sometimes would even talk shortly. Maria Irani thought he was such a show off, but she was in love. She already knew he was the love of her life.

Talking to her friends she used to say "I'm in love with him, but I'm just a prize for him. Just one more prize so he can show off to his friends."

Soon enough, he asked her to be his girlfriend. And sooner than that, he proposed to her.

Maria's mind said "No, he doesn't deserve me. He drinks too much, he is not serious about anything but his animals. I'm not for him." but her heart was such a fool. And she said YES.

Maria Irani was 16 years old when she got married to Benedito, which was 20 years old.

The marriage was always disturbed. A lot of fights, verbal and physical agressiviness, cheating, drinking and hard working and omission from Maria.

They had 5 kids. Fatima, Benedito Jose, Sueli, Alessandra and a long time after they had Marcus Paulo. Together with Fatima's first daughter Najara, that was born a week before Marcus Paulo.

They had a life full of stories. The kids say that Benedito was the most loving one and Maria was the most emotional distant one when dealing with them.

Troubles, problems, very bad behavior and a lot of omissions. The biggest loss of their lives happened when Benedito Jose, the second kid. Died on a car accident. Jose was Benedito's partner and companion. The one that learned everything from his dad. And the one that would settle Benedito's temper down. After this....Benedito was never the same. He wouldn't show how much he was suffering, but he started becoming a better person.

After 17 years, Benedito now is a loving and considerate husband and dad. And now he is able to cry over his problems, fears and guilty. And he is able to be the grandfather of 6 grandkids.

This is my tribute to my grandparents. The couple that didn't have time to be the best grandparents a kid could ask for, but the couple that on their best are the grandparents that I love unconditionally and am proud of.