Zita was born in June 1940 in Portugal. In Portugal they speak Portuguese. Portugal borders Spain, and the average temperature in Portugal is 22 degrees Celsius. Zita's favourite place in Portugal is Lisbon, which is the capital of Portugal. It's her favourite place because it's close to beautiful beaches. In the winter Portugal is very damp and it rains a lot but there's no snow. Portugal has many cork trees, which are much less common in Canada. The cork trees in Portugal were used to make bottle stoppers when Zita was younger. Today cork is used for many things such as flooring, shoes, chairs and iPad cases. There are lots of orange trees in Portugal too. Food in Portugal uses many familiar ingredients, but it is often prepared with different spices and more garlic. Portugal sounds like a beautiful and interesting place but there came a point where Zita had to make a big decision.
When Zita was 23 she met Fernando. She met Fernando in a movie theatre when she was in Portugal. When she was 24, she married Fernando. Zita married Fernando in Portugal and they had a small family wedding. When Zita was 25 she had her son John. Her sister got married that same year. Zita and Fernando decided to move to Canada. They wanted to give their children a better life with more job opportunities and in Portugal they believed there was less freedom at that time. In 1932, before Zita was born Portugal had a leader named António de Oliveira Salazar. The story's cited source described Salazar as controlling Portugal's social, economic, cultural, and political life from 1933 to 1974.
Choosing to move to Canada was a hard decision because they had to leave family and friends behind, including Zita's only sister. Zita and Fernando moved from Portugal to Canada in 1967. They took an airplane to Canada and it took them six hours to get to Toronto. When Zita and her husband moved to Canada they rented an apartment in Toronto and it was their first winter with snow. Katty was born when Zita was 29 shortly after the family came to Canada. It was probably difficult to make new friends and to speak English instead of Portuguese.
At the time this story was written, Zita was 77 years old and had lived in Canada for 50 years. She has gone back to visit Portugal sometimes to see her family and friends. Zita's sister still lives in Portugal. When Zita first moved to Canada she missed Portugal but now she really loves it here and she is glad she made the decision to move here!