The dream of Felipe and Marina, two children born in the heat of São Paulo, was to see the snow. Their parents, Wilma and Helio, took them to Bariloche, Argentina, in the 1990s, where the two not only fulfilled their dream of walking in the snow, but also skied and lived a memorable story: Felipe, as excited as he was, stuck his hand into the ice and froze his two little fingers. 

At the age of 12, Felipe moved with his family from São Paulo to Caxias do Sul, RS, and always missed the big city. He often talked about moving back to SP, a wish that only truly faded when he began to get involved with the plans to have his own restaurant, a very old dream. He always loved to cook and, in his last year, he was about to take over a pizzeria and a sushi restaurant in Garibaldi, RS. 

“You don't need a reason to celebrate”, Felipe used to say when he set the table and made a special dinner for the family. At gatherings, it was always him who cooked. One reason was because he loved cooking, but another was because, temperamental as he was, he only really liked things done his way.

Felipe was all or nothing: he either loved or hated. He was very much a homebody but, when he decided to go out, he would spend three days in a row at a rave. He did not usually listen to others. Once, he adopted a black mutt in Torres, RS, and took it home, even though everyone warned that the dog would grow huge. Feijão, as he named it, did indeed grow enormous, and even destroyed the floor of the studio apartment where Felipe lived. But he never minded. In fact, he was not at all attached to material things: he had been wearing the same t-shirt for fifteen years and did not worry if his sneakers already had holes. 

Perhaps because he had such a strong temper, Felipe did not have many friends who understood this personality. But he had Cecília. He and his goddaughter were very close. Felipe let her do everything she wanted, including taking a shower from the faucet in the park. They looked alike physically — on their outings, people thought they were father and daughter, they shared musical taste (Anitta and Alok, for example) and even flew to Florianópolis when the girl was only four years old. Felipe and Cecília were inseparable. But not even all the love in the world stopped Cecília from starting to cry desperately with homesickness after the second day of the trip. She only stopped when her uncle bought a variety of pacifiers at the pharmacy, which she had to go back to using to calm down. “Never again”, he would say, laughing, when remembering that trip. It was Cecília who, at the age of nine, was Felipe's “nanny” when he fell ill. 

A Biology teacher for students from sixth to ninth grade, he got along very well with young people, who always invited him to be their class patron. Besides teaching, he loved being in nature. One of his favorite places was Ninho das Águias (Eagles' Nest). 

Felipe was a person who gave a lot of himself, especially to his family. He thought more about others than about himself. So much so that, when he got sick, he never said how he was really feeling, so as not to worry them. 

In his last week of life, he told the family he would be discharged from the hospital on Saturday, which he knew was not true, but was a more comforting version. Before going to the ICU, he sent an audio message to his sister, so she would not worry, telling her everything was fine. To his mother, whom he managed to see on the way to the intensive care unit, he smiled and waved. 

Felipe said goodbye early. But his memories live on. His ashes were scattered in two places he loved very much: in the tranquility of Paraíso beach, RS, and in the bustle of Avenida Paulista, SP. The rest stayed with Cecília, who carries him in a pendant, close to her heart, where he always was. 

Text: Valquíria Vita, Legado Histórias de Vida 

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