Dots Cross Connected
October 11-20 2023

 

I never felt like I needed to make a visit to the Azores in the past, but before Covid hit my heart changed after many conversations with each of my sisters and cousin.  They each encouraged me to the point that we scheduled a trip in 2020.  We were stopped by COVID, so we re-scheduled for 2022, which was canceled by the airline due to seismic activity.

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My sense of urgency was raised even higher with the passing of my Tio Delfino in March of 2023.  I knew I wanted to meet my Tia Laura, my birth mom’s youngest sister, who remained on the island.

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So we scheduled to depart October 11, 2023 for a 10 day trip that would depart JFK and arrive 16 hrs later in the Azores.  It was a very emotional visit for me.  For the first 40 years of my life Sao Jorge was the place my mom, Rose Baptista Alves Craine, was from.  It’s the place that the Craine’s visited twice with my sister Roberta Craine in 1953 & 1956.  It was from those 35mm slides taken back in ‘56 where I saw for the first time pictures of my birth parents, Arlindo and Bernadette, with my adopting mom, Rose, in the back row in front of a church.  It’s the island both of my birth parents were born and raised until coming to the USA as well as my adopting mom Rose.  I was probably conceived on Sao Jorge, right after the wedding!  It will be my first face to face meeting with my mom’s baby sister, Tia Laura.  I was joined on the adventure by my 1st cousin, Diane Silva. Her father, my Tio Manuel, was very close to my mother Bernadette.  It seems to be extremely fitting that Diane is joining me on this adventure.  Without her and the encouragement of my sisters Christine, Toni, and Marie this trip would not have happened.

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Thank you, Diane, Christine, Toni and Marie, for encouraging me to make this happen! It allowed me to connect many dots.

 

The adventure started on Oct 11 with flight number one from RDU (Raleigh Durham North Carolina) to JFK (New York).  It departed at 1:20pm to begin my transport to the island where I was conceived.  It’s only taken me 66 years to return.

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We met up with Cousin Diane at JFK for flight number two which was from JFK (8:55pm departure) to Ponto Delgada (6:45am arrived) on the Azore Island of San Miguel.  Flight number three was after an 8-hour layover (2:00pm) from Ponto Delgada to the island of Sao Jorge.  24 plus hours after departing RDU we arrived on the island of Sao Jorge.

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Thanks to the 35mm slides the Craine’s took on their trips here in 1953 & 1956, I had a pretty good idea of what the island looked like.  Those photos gave me a sense of the family ties Rose had and its beauty. I see why Bob Craine painted the view of Pico from Sao Jorge (oil) that he did from one of the slides.  On the morning of Oct 13, I had my first meeting with my birth mom’s youngest sister, my Tia Laura!   I failed at obeying my Tia’s first words while hugging each other.  “No crying,” she stated.

 

I knew this meeting would be at her home, which was my grandparents’ home before hers, and we found out it was also my great-grandparents’ home as well. So this is the home my mom Bernadette and her siblings were raised in.  I also learned that after my parents’ wedding (August 1956), they and my sister Marie lived in this house.  My mom, Bernadette, departed for the US in December 1956.  With that information and my birthday of May 25, 1957….that means I really was conceived in this home!! My father followed to the USA in April of 1957.  Diane’s dad, my Tio Manuel, left for the US in February 1957.

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Shortly after greeting Tio Antero, Tia’s husband, and son Terry, we drove to the cemetery to pay our respects to my grandparents as well as my Tio Delfino, who passed away last March 2023.  Then it was off to the Parish Church of Urzelina where my parents were married.  Tia got a key to let us inside the church.  Not only did my parents get married here, so did all the siblings living here.   This is also the church where they were each baptized.  As we departed the church I recreated my parents’ wedding photo with my Tia Laura, me, my cousin Diane (daughter of Manuel Silva,) and Cousin Terry (son of Tia Laura). 

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My parents’ desire to have a better life for all of us is very apparent by their actions of moving to America.  Instead, we suffered the tragic loss of my mother in a new country that changed my father’s, sister Marie’s, and my paths.   I am so very grateful for the life I have as a Craine because of my father’s difficult choices after the loss of his wife, my mother. I am also very thankful that our Silva and Baptista paths have re-aligned and allowed me to connect as family once again.

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Another first meeting occurred on Sao Jorge where I met my birth grandmother’s (Margarida) sister‘s (Maria), daughter’s (Maria Ercilla) daughter, Manuela (Nellie).  Cousin Nellie (nick name) was visiting the island from Napa, CA with her husband, Dave. It was a wonderful afternoon of conversation and gin, followed by a great sunset and dinner at a local restaurant.

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We hired Antonio Gomes and his taxi for the day and he was awesome!  He drove us around finding the sites that Rose and Bob Craine visited on their island visit 70 years (1956) ago based on the color photos I shared with him.

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We’ve had lots of firsts over our 10 days.  I visited the home where my mother Bernadette was born, where my Tia Laura, husband and son now live.  It’s also the home of my grandparents and before them, where my great-grandparents lived.  I learned that my parents moved in after the wedding and the math indicates I was conceived in this home.

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I walked into the church where my parents married. I took flowers to the cemetery where my grandparents and Tio Delfino are buried.
 

I visited the village where my father Arlindo was born in Ribero Seca as well as the Caldeira where he worked in the tobacco fields. It’s also the village where Rose Baptista Alves Craine was born as well as both her parents.  I visited the church Sanctuary of Senhor Santo Cristo - Fajã da Caldeira where both sides of my families lived and celebrated.  I was able to view many areas of Saó Jorge where Bob Craine snapped pictures during both their 1953 and 1956 visits.

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I met with my cousin Nellie and her husband for the first-time face to face, who were visiting the island from the USA as well.

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I got to know my cousin Diane, who traveled with us on this experience of a lifetime, giving me the opportunity to see into her heart. We had many chances to share tears of joy and sadness with each other, sometimes at the same time! 

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My roots come from a family of people that lived in a beautiful but harsh place with no running water, no power, no grocery stores.  They did have a strong faith in God.  They all wanted to better themselves and many looked to America for that opportunity.  Like many others, my parents risked everything by going to a country when they couldn’t speak English or read it.  They left behind my sister, a not quite 2 year old child, until they could raise the money and get the paperwork done to get her to America to join us.  Then 4 months after my birth, a tragic kitchen cooking fire sent my mom into a Sacramento hospital with burns over 90% of her body.  She passed away after 14 days.  My father was forced to figure out how to take care of a newborn and work to pay the medical and funeral costs of my mom.  He even posted an ad in the Elk Grove newspaper attempting to hire someone to help take care of me. Somehow, he ended up working on a dairy in Lemoore, CA where his 1st cousin offered to adopt the cute little boy named José Silva Baptista and changed his name to Joseph Robert Craine, Bob or Bobby to most of you.  Without the tragedy of losing my mom, much would be changed.  I would have grown up with a different sister and probably other siblings and lived somewhere other than Hanford. Those of you reading this, probably would not be reading it as a friend or even as a family member.

 

As I told my father Arlindo and his wife Maria at the Sear’s parts counter around 1977, I am so thankful for the hard choices he made.  Without those choices I would not have met and married Jeannie and had the life I lived because of that choice.  The goal of a better life was obtained for myself, my father Arlindo and my sister Marie. 

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Rose and Bob Craine allowed my father Arlindo to visit me once a year but required him to never share my whereabouts to any of the family which included my sister Marie.  From the conversations I had with family members, I realized Arlindo kept that part of the agreement up until we met in 1997 when he handed me my sister’s phone number and I called Marie.   Not even my siblings knew.  Arlindo reported that I was doing well to my mom’s side of the family, but never disclosed my whereabouts. My cousin Diane knew I existed but didn’t know where I was.    Well the secret is out!  Arlindo Baptista & Bernadette Silva and daughter Marie had a son, José Silva Baptista that was adopted after Bernadette passed away in San Jose, CA.  That son, José Silva Baptista was renamed Joseph Robert Craine and raised by Bob & Rose Craine with sister Roberta in Hanford, CA…….this adventure to Sao Jorge has now connected all my dots!