Personal Narrative: Raising Our Six Children

“It was the little room, the one at the end of the house. I was going turn it into a sewing room, but it was so far away from my kitchen. For papa it was the garage. You know he was one mechanic, need plenty space. The area was big enough for us raise our six kids” (Mary Ann Feiteira, interview), says Mary Ann Feiteira. She is my great grandmother, “Gramz”, wife to my later great grandfather or “Papa”, and owner of our family home on 370 Makawao Ave. “All I wanted to raise my kids and that 's enough. I wanted to do it as simply as possible” (Mary Ann, interview). The area was indeed big enough to raise their six kids, and their six kids kids, and their kids kids kids. She answered my questions patiently. My questions slowly lead up to her relationship with my recently deceased great grandfather. So she told me their story, “Our families knew each other …show more content…
She would slip into portuguese from time to time, often without realizing it. We sat around the dining room that I swear has shrunk as I’ve gotten older. My cousin of a whole knowledgeable eleven years old added her own eager questions to my own. “Where were your parents from?” she asked, with eyes that burned with an unsatisfiable fire. “Well” said Gramz, “My mother was Mary Ann Vierra, she was one of the babies that came here from Portugal. My father was John Puana from here” (Mary Ann, Interview). My cousin was immediately excited by this, she went off rambling about all the classmates she had with the last name Vierra. I thought quietly to myself, ‘that means you can’t date all of the people you named because you’re related!”. I kept that comment to myself. We took a break from the questions and I pattered around the kitchen grabbing snacks and pouring juice into my late great grandfather 's favorite coffee cup. The memory made me smile. This was a “man cup” as he called it, it was broad and heavy but held the perfect amount of ice tea for