There is no one better to be than to be yourself. Lucinda Margarida Gedoz Marchioro was not afraid to be herself. To go after what she wanted. To persist and grow in a career, at a time when women were not encouraged to do so. 

Lucinda was born into a family of six siblings. It was the eldest sister, Laura, who watched over her upbringing and that of the other siblings, since their parents, Fiorentino Gedoz and Clementina Piccoli, spent every hour of the day busy with the hard work in the fields and with the animals, on the land where they lived, in Carlos Barbosa, RS. Her mother was already a model of a non-traditional woman for the time. 

The family gathered only for lunch and dinner: rice and beans at noon, polenta with cheese at night. In these moments, a deadly silence hung in the air because, even though the mother was more talkative, the father did not allow conversation at the table. 

The children played outdoors, swam in the river and believed in the tales that it was the stork that brought the cow's little calves. But life was about to change. When Lucinda was 12 years old, there was a terrible drought in the state, so severe that all the crops on the family's property died. As a result, they moved to Caxias do Sul.

The adaptation of the country children, used to walking barefoot and having never set foot in a school before, was not easy, and Lucinda studied for only two years (“if you don't like studying, then you'll work”, said her father). 

At 14, she began working at a goldsmith's. At the jewelry factory, she met Arlindo Marchioro, whom she married at the age of 19. By 25, she already had four children. 

In her youth, Lucinda's leisure activities were following the city's amateur soccer, going to dances with Arlindo, especially at Clube Guarany, where they danced tangos, boleros and waltzes (she loved Frank Sinatra) and going to the movies — she liked classic films such as Doctor Zhivago and Casablanca. 

As the couple worked a lot, the family's most memorable moments were the summer breaks. Lucinda and Arlindo would sell half of their vacation in order to afford 15 days at the beach. They went to Areias Brancas or Arroio do Sal, in a decade when these beaches were deserted and a small plane dropped the newspapers onto the sand dunes. The houses they stayed in had a stone stove and well water. But everything was wonderful. Because it was when the family was together. 

Lucinda was a factory worker, but she already had an entrepreneurial sense within her. In the early 1970s, she acquired a Lanofix knitting machine. With it, she continued at the factory during the day, and at night she produced knitwear at home, products that she sold in the neighborhood. 

When the factory where she and her husband worked closed its doors, in 1975, she already had the experience and clientele to open her own business: Kilu. The brand, famous on Rua Borges de Medeiros, was a boutique that dressed the women of Caxias do Sul until the early 2000s. 

During the many years of Kilu, Lucinda made several trips to São Paulo to acquire pieces for resale, at a time when it was not common to make such ventures. Determined, she traveled 18 hours by intercity bus, with a group of friends, or even alone. 

She watched the Globo soap operas to keep an eye on fashion trends. She welcomed and served customers in the store (always calling them “dear”), but did not chat for long: she soon excused herself to return to work with the seamstresses. She liked to ask for opinions, such as “which button do you think I should put on this shirt?”, only to, in the end, put on exactly the button she had chosen from the start. 

With this extreme dedication to her work and business, there was not much time for household tasks, such as cleaning the house and cooking for the family, as most women of her generation did. 

Instead, Lucinda made a point of having her four children go to college, as she understood that the future depended on education. One of the most memorable moments was when her eldest daughter graduated. Lucinda encouraged all the women in the family, including her granddaughters, to be independent like her (in the 1990s, she went with friends to New York). She had eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Today, there is one more on the way. 

A fan of barbecue, she made a great risotto and sagu (tapioca pudding). She liked soap operas and, in her last years, when the pace of work slowed down, she devoted herself to crochet, knitting and plants, in the apartment above Kilu. She did not know how to (and did not want to) sit still, even after retirement. 

Lucinda said goodbye at the age of 89. She was the last of the Gedoz siblings from Carlos Barbosa who was still alive. 

She lived a complete life. And she lived it her own way. 

Text: Valquíria Vita, Legado Histórias de Vida 

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