This is Pedro from Krommenie. With his angelical white suit and his bright eyes, he faces the world with brightness, even despite all the setbacks in his life.

Pedro’s story begins in Cape Verde, until 1975 still a part of Portugal. “In my younger years, Portugal engaged in a war with Angola and Mozambique,” he says. “My father, who had already been working in the Netherlands, didn’t want me to go to the front. That would’ve meant my death, he feared, and that’s why he sent me money to flee Cape Verde.”

Immigration agents
Pedro travels to the Netherlands by boat and train via Senegal and France. “Sadly, I was not allowed to live with my father by the immigration agents and therefore I started working in deep sea shipping. After five years I’ve had enough. Around that time, my mother, brother and sister succeeded to come to the Netherlands as well.”

Coma
After the deep-sea shipping Pedro started working at a textile business – until that one faithful day, almost twenty years ago. “I fell into a coma after a terrible car accident,” he tells. “Two months later I woke up, sadly with brain damage and that’s why talking isn’t as easy for me anymore. Sometimes I seethe with anger, then I start yelling. That is not good. And yet I have made peace with my disability, because the day smiles at us and shines with luck!”

Holy place
Pedro has been living in the Noorderhoofdstraat in Krommenie for 21 years, with great joy. “I find this a holy place, because I live close to a church. This started to become very important to me after my accident. I am always happy in the Lord.”

Pedro has two sons and several grandchildren. After the car accident he got divorced.