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My name is Carla Di Bonito. I come from North Eastern Brazil. I’ve got two kids, Filippo and Giada. Filippo is five and a half and Giada is three. I was brought up in Fortaleza in North East Brazil.
My mum used to sing ‘Obrigada Papai do Ceu’ to me but it has nothing to do with lullabies. It was a Mother’s Day song which goes something like this:
‘Thank God, our Heavenly Father, for the Mum you gave to me because she gave me everything I ask. She’s better than any Mum in the whole world. As this is her day, I’ll ask you to give her the happiness of the whole world and everything that she wants.’
It’s a song for Mother’s Day but my mum sang it every day throughout the year. I distinctly remember her singing it when I was about three because my Father was still alive and he died when I was three. I used to sleep in a hammock so she would just rock the hammock while she was singing it to me. When I left Brazil for Italy to study, that song remained so much with me that any time I was missing my mother, I’d sing it.
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