Sandro Comarella and I may have never talked. But suddenly a lot of goodness has come his way. News seems to travel fast and I couldn’t believe what I heard, so, here I am as the official storyteller for this great tale.
Well, not so fast! If you listen to Sandro, 27, this may not be that special of a story. “Not really!” he says, sort of shyly.
You be the judge!
After three months working with a family from Finland in Wellesley, Massachusetts, he and a few other Brazilian handymen had done enough of painting, carpentry and other finish jobs to leave the house in top condition.
They had also become acquainted with the woman whose devotion to her children really impressed them. With five kids, she has three with Down’s syndrome.
“I once told her that God has a very special place prepared for her in Heaven!” Sandro said. “She could have been impatient, like any mother could be, you know, but she was always very gentle and kind.”
While their conversations were not very frequent, she too, learned about his life.
Sandro and his wife Gabriela were married some three years ago and are expecting their first baby, a girl, in November. Gabriela, a masseuse at the Natick Mall, had mentioned to her husband that they would need a van when they have their baby. Sandro said they were hoping to be able to save enough money and trade in one of their cars.
Since Sheryl, the Finish woman (whose last name he never really learned) was about to move back to Finland with her husband, a heart doctor, Sandro showed some interest in her ’97 Town and Country van.
She was glad to sell it to him. The price they agreed upon was $4,000, a lot better than the market value of $6,000, certainly a good deal between friends.
All of a sudden, she called him and said she was actually going to charge him only $3,000. “Really?” he asked. That was great news, he thought. She told him she was sure. She had given it some thought and that seemed like the right thing to do.
When he arrived at her house to bring her the check and pick up the van, she had a different idea.
“I changed my mind,” she told him. “I want to give you the van as a gift. I know you’re about to have your first child. This is my present to you.”
Sandro said he was certainly surprised and he said again, “really?” She said yes.
“At that moment, my heart was filled with joy,” said Sandro. “I realized God had really taken care of me…. You see, my wife and I have always prayed to God asking him to bless our marriage. And we had also prayed that we would be able to sell one of our cars and purchase the van before the baby came.”
Sandro says that he wondered for a minute, but the woman made it clear:
‘It’s not a present only for you; it’s a present for your daughter.”
While Sandro has told this story to friends and co-workers, he says he always wants to make sure people understand what happened to him.
“We must be very careful with words, because they can be misinterpreted,” he said on a phone conversation. “I think this is so personal that I don’t see it as that special. “To me, it was natural. Miracles happen everyday. You are alive, I am alive, and these are all miracles. “
Sandro says he grew up Catholic, but had been away from church until a few years ago when he and his wife joined the Igreja Presbiteriana Nova Vida, a Brazilian evangelical church, in Framingham.
Through prayer, he said, he has asked God to bless him and his family. And he makes a point of explaining that prayer is not about repetition, it’s about conversation, pondering, opening up to God.
He is now convinced that this lucky moment was a response to his daily prayers.
“There is no merit in this for her or for me,” Sandro said. “I told her that I wanted her to know that she gave (the van) to me because God touched her heart. I think she understands.”
An immigrant from the state of Paraná, in southern Brazil, Sandro is pleased for his opportunities here. He has worked in construction and he has also been able to start his own cleaning business, where he has been adding contracts almost enough to devote himself solely to his own company.
He expects this could happen pretty soon, as he has believed in good things coming his way.
“I use this (gift story) as a way to show to people that God is real, that God gives back and that God is there to help each of us with what we need.”
I personally think that this is a very special story because of a very generous giver, inspired by God or life, or Sandro himself.
Este artigo foi originalmente publicado no Metrowest Daily News, em setembro de 2003.