In the fourth episode of the Growing Stories web series, we meet Lourdes, who works in a pine seedling nursery in Vargem Bonita, Santa Catarina. This tenacious matriarch leads five generations of women in her household who are employed in the chain of paper production.
My mother was like a pillar of strength.
My grandmother also was always so important in my life.
One day, I hope to one day be like my grandmother.
Everyone is so proud of her. She loves what she does.
I’m Therezinha Lourdes Pereira.
THEREZINHA LOURDES PEREIRA – Nursery Assistant
I’m 76 years old. I work with seedlings, seeds… I do a little bit of everything there in the nursery.
We plant pine, eucalyptus, and various forest [trees] so there will always be enough. For wood, you know?
I’m Salete, Lourdes’ daughter.
I am very happy to see everyone in the family working.
I’m Marinês, Lourdes’ daughter.
Good morning Mom!
Good morning.
How are you?
Good, and you?
Fine, thanks.
Does your mother boss you around there?
Sometimes, yes.
I am Ana Paula, Lourdes’ granddaughter.
I’m Vanusa, Lourdes’ granddaughter.
Our family is within a production cycle, right?… in the company. So it goes from my grandmother and my aunt planting the seeds, then paper is made, and my sister does the quality control inspection, then they are packaged by my mother’s department, and next I get the cardboard and turn it into boxes.
We joke that we go from the seed to the customer, right? So this is our chain.
I’m Monike, Lourdes’ great-granddaughter.
Lourdes’ great-granddaughter is the student intern in the department.
For me, I think one of the things I’m most proud of is all of them, for all the things we’ve made it through, nobody got lost, they all have always been very strong…
My grandma is 76 years old and still working… it’s a hobby to her. She loves what she does, my mother also loves what she does, they are women who inspire us to be like them.
All the types of paper produced in Brazil come from forests planted for industrial purposes.
