Dear donators,

I want to express my deep gratitude to everyone who contributed to this fundraising’s success and all the lovely comments about Paulo.

For me personally, he was a great and hard-working designer, an innovation facilitator and a creative mind with a holistic view on things, who first listened carefully, summarised the information and asked the right questions afterwards.

As a working colleague, he was a daily lighthouse and I truly enjoyed every minute of our shared time and tasks together.

As a very close friend and the best man at my wedding, we had great fun times together, laughed until we cried and in private, we did lots of creative art projects together, yes, even a music video clip as "sheep+wolf“. We rented for 300 CHF an old Volkswagen van from the 80’s for our video shoot and it rained cats and dogs that day…, but this didn’t stop us. We taped umbrellas above the camera-tripods and did our thing as if nothing was happening. Totally crazy but this reflected his personality as well: Just keep going...

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A short story about Paulo:

Once we talked about the soul and spirit of Portuguese people and he said: „Listen to Fado music, there is life, struggle and passion. On my home island of Madeira, there are rocks, there is no soft white beach. People are used to rocks, they are even on your way - and you overcome them. Pain, grief and mourning came from our long history as sailors and explorers. Many men left and never returned home, they left family members at home mourning and left mothers struggling financially to support their children. That formed us Portuguese to be very down to earth, we live the purity of reality as it is. We don’t try to make it prettier than it is. But what defines us, is living in the moment and appreciating it. The happiness comes from eating food together, which was cooked with love. Enjoying the presence of family and friends is very important to us. You can not change the way you were born, as it is in your genes but live in a way that it also makes your country proud of you. Be honest, work hard and make people happy.“

Thanks, mate, for these valuable insights and life lessons and I understand the story now. It sounds more like words from a ZEN master to me. I promise I will always keep you and your mother in my heart - until we both will be free.