When I met Sofia

As we celebrate our wedding anniversary, I would like to share the moment I met my wife Sofia.

I often decide on someone within 30 seconds of meeting them, I felt a good emotion for Sofia almost from the moment I saw her, we were 20 years old.

I met Sofia in a college class, she loved maths and I hated it, she went to attend an extra maths class in my class, she sat in front of me and I soon borrowed a pen from her without needing it, then I was lucky enough that she agreed to be my maths tutor and saved me from maths phobia, having with her help finished all my maths subjects.

Sofia is a lovely humble and pragmatic person and I quickly realised that she would not be impressed by my usual jokes and naughtiness.

We both love to travel and experience trips, a few years after we met, we started on a road trip of over 6000kms, driving a Renault Megan through Portugal, Spain, France and Italy, an unforgettable trip with a funny moment in Venice where Sofia met by chance in the middle of St. Mark's square her high school French teacher.

After this first trip we have never stopped visiting and experiencing the world, with 50 countries already visited and many experiences lived as a couple, as a foursome with our two children or with friends. Knowing new cultures, new people, new thoughts, new ways of life is fundamental to keep an open mind, very necessary in the business world, willing to change and to implement constant innovations.

Since that time at college, we have become inseparable and after some time we moved in together and never separated.

I owe a lot to Sofia. She has been my wife for 13 years and partner for 25 years, mother of our two wonderful children and my constant rock to lean on. Sofia has always been a constant source of wisdom and has played a major role in some of the best decisions of my life.

Wedding
 

The best was when Sofia and I got married at Runaway Bay beach in Jamaica, 11 years later, with no guests only the two of us, in an adventure with nothing programmed we decided to get married at that moment.

We quickly hired a minister as we got help from the hotel reception, and without guests the witnesses had to be the waiters who served the champagne and the small wedding cake, the clothes were also the ones we had for the holidays and the flower bouquet was the only extravagance made as Sofia wanted the country flowers which are her favourites.

One year later our first son Salvador was born and 3 years later, Bernardo.

Sofia is a wonderful person, careful, attentive, very affectionate with everyone with whom she relates, an excellent public relation, by her side it is difficult to live a sad or monotonous life, always cheerful and in a good mood she takes care of our children and our dogs with mastery, wisdom and tenderness, something that I can never match no matter how hard I try.

If I turned my mind back to that day in the classroom 25 years ago, I could never imagine what the next two and a half decades would bring, with a life full of love and wonderful children like Salvador and Bernardo.