Olívia Neto began working at the Preventorium of the Rovisco Pais Colony Hospital in 1970 as a supervisor (vigilante). She recalled moments from the eleven years she worked with the children.

She remembers her first day very clearly: “I came on a Friday, on 1 October 1970, at 10 a.m. My brothers-in-law brought me. Mr Fernando was there at the gates, where there was a sculpture that is now in the paediatrics department in Coimbra. He didn’t know me and said: ‘No one comes in here!’ But I insisted until he eventually let me phone Mrs Maria Luísa, who was the director.”

Mrs Olívia was then thirty years old but had never worked before. She explained: “My story is like that of Rovisco Pais itself. I married in 1966 and my daughter was born in 1967, but in 1970 I became a widow. It was four years of marriage. Then I spent six months without working… One day an aunt of mine said to me: ‘Oh Olívia, would you like to go to work?’ And I, with a rather silly look, because I had never worked and had always lived under my parents’ skirts, replied: ‘I would, aunt.’ As she was very friendly with the superintendent of the Preventorium and the Crèche, she got me a job. There was an interview, since it was work with children, and I was accepted. I lived in, and that was a bit hard for me, because I had a little girl of just over two years old and I couldn’t have her there, so she stayed with her grandparents in Cantanhede.”

The Preventorium was for the “older” children and had capacity for eighty children. The Crèche had capacity for sixty children: “there were the babies, the children from the ‘wheel’ group (4 and 5 years old), and those from the kindergarten (5–6 years old).” However, she does not recall how many there were when she started work. She explained that the children were born in the Hospital and then taken to the Crèche in special vehicles. “My colleagues and I went to the visiting room so that the children could be visited by their parents.” When we asked whether the children asked questions, she replied: “The children didn’t ask about their parents, because some didn’t even know them. They lived with us from morning until night, and we were their fathers and mothers.”

She recalled: “The Crèche was the most beautiful building—its entrance and those dedications! Tiles at the entrance, the swings, the weeping willows… In front of the buildings there was a large playground and a garden, which was beautiful!”

She said there was a primary school teacher, a nurse, two early childhood educators, supervisors and domestic staff, a cook (who was always Mrs Emília Valente), and a seamstress. All services were overseen by Mrs Maria Luísa, who was superintendent of both the Crèche and the Preventorium. Before her there had been Sister Azinhais. “Mrs Maria Luísa got on very well with Professor Bissaya Barreto, who was the director of many Children’s Homes…”

Mrs Olívia admitted: “Our superintendent was very strict—we had a military-style regime! Whoever wanted to accept it did; whoever didn’t… Well, we had to comply. But I liked it. I had never worked in my life, but I liked it very much. I had colleagues who came in in the morning and left at night because Mrs Maria Luísa would shout so much… it frightened them.” She even recounted an episode from when she first started: Dr Santos Silva came to visit the children, and one day Mrs Maria Luísa was speaking loudly on the telephone, and I commented to my colleague Carlota: ‘She’s scolding so much…’ And Carlota replied: ‘That’s just how she is, don’t worry.’ And I relaxed. I never had problems, but of course one had to behave properly. Many people didn’t accept it! We had to comply, and if we did, everything was fine.”

We wanted to know more about daily life, and Mrs Olívia explained: “We started at seven o’clock, at the door of our superintendent’s room. She didn’t allow loose hair and we had to be properly uniformed. We only left at eight-thirty in the evening. We didn’t have a fixed time for lunch; we only ate after the children. At night, we didn’t even have a chair to rest—it was up and down the building! The work was very demanding. We only had one day off per week. We left at sunrise! It sounds like a joke, but it’s true! And we had to be back before sunset at the gates (the entrance). And I went to see my daughter—I took the bus to Cantanhede. It was seven escudos and fifty cents each way. I left the Preventorium with the sun already high. And so I had to keep searching for bus timetables. My life was a big problem!”

About working with the children, Mrs Olívia said: “The superintendent put me straight with the older ones. There were boys there who sometimes said some pretty strong things to us… Luckily, I already had a bit of life experience, so some things I let go, but others not. We had boys aged 16, 17, and even 18! Now, an 18-year-old boy is a man! You had to have a clear head and good judgement to deal with it properly. Because they had no one else there. They had us. The other staff left at the end of their shifts, but we, the supervisors, were always there. We had an enormous responsibility! God forbid a child went missing—we’d be out on the street!”

At the Preventorium there was a mixed primary school, which the children attended from the age of seven. Later, at lower secondary level, they attended schools outside the institution. “The teacher gave lessons until three o’clock, and then handed the children over to me so they could do their homework—multiplication tables, problems—and we had to ask them about verb conjugations… I learned a lot with them! After the fourth-grade exam, they went to the lower secondary school in Cantanhede. In a van—and sometimes it was me who went with them, sometimes another colleague.”