If you’re not a fan of reading I’ve got you covered! Click Here to listen to this episode.

Driving past a Fire Station on my way home this week i read a sign on the wall saying “not all heroes wear capes”, although I’d heard that saying before it got me thinking…

We grow up (at least i did!) with all sorts of heroes on TV, hero’s with some type of super power that we mortals don’t have. Things like invisibility, super strength and the all time favorite…flying!

When asked as a child or teen what super power I’d like to possess if given the chance I’d always refer to a superpower from a TV superheroes not even thinking to look at the superhero’s standing before me…

I think it’s the superpower hero’s posses in movies and cartoons that leads us to believe that in order for us to be hero’s we too need to be able to walk through walls and flip trucks with our pinkie finger! If only I could see then what I can see now and that is that what makes a hero is all around me and even…within me.

Let me introduce you to the image of what heroes really look like…

True heroes…my pai (dad) Roberto and my mãe (mum) Eliana. Two people who can’t fly unless their on a plane of course and, they can’t walk through walls although, I’ve caught them walking into walls on a few occasions lol…Pai & mãe don’t possess those cartoonish superpowers but they posses so much more that makes them superhero’s in my eyes.

I’ve often spoken to people about my dad and what he accomplished as a professional football (soccer) player but, I don’t think I have ever spoken much of what he and mãe have accomplished together outside of football which is so much more important than fame and accolades and…so much more heroic.

It was 1985 when my dad set foot in Australia for the first time. He arrived not knowing a word of English and alone. Brisbane City Football Club was in the equivalent of the “A-League” division back then and pai arrived as the first Brazilian player to join the league. In the hope of having a better future, my parents decided dad would stay in Australia for a period of time to determine if Australia would be a better place for them to raise my brother Giovani and I.

Of course, it would not take long for them to decide that Australia was to be our next home but, what did take a while was for visas to be granted, two years to be exact, two years of pai here in Australia and mãe, mano (my brother) and I in Brazil.

For me, the heroism began when pai & mãe decided that they would leave their home land to seek a better future for us. Leave a place where pai had built his name in the football world and, where he and mãe had an abundance of family and friends they loved. I only understood this better recently when I myself moved. Mind you, I only moved from one side of town to the other (yes you can laugh lol) and that in itself was difficult for me! It made me think of what pai & mãe would have felt all those years back during their to Australia and it choked me up.

It was a cool night in 1987 when mãe, mano and I landed here in Brisbane. Seeing pai for the first time in two years was pure joy and relief. Having an Italian background meant that we went from being a large family with multiple uncles, aunties, grandparents, cousins and friends to a family of 4. My brother became my best friend and my parents, my parents became the ultimate heroes.

At the time of the move I refused to eat anything other than watermelon as I missed the food from home too much! My poor mae, as if she didn’t have enough to worry about and now she had to worry that her child was only eating fruit! Mano and I soon found ourselves in school, not speaking a word of English meant we had to “roll with the punches” and find a way to communicate and make friends. Wasn’t easy being the “different kid” and I often got teased for being different…I’m sure that played a huge part in shaping me into the woman I am today.

Australian football didn’t pay as well as in Brazil so, now in his 30’s dad had to “work” on top of playing for the first time in his life. Easy? No, not at all. And mum, my had to work too, first time in her life as in Brazil she was a footballers wife who’s job was to travel around with dad and raise us. Easy? Again, not at all. So all in all my parents flipped their lives upside down and changed every single little thing to provide my brother and I with a better future.

The hardest thing was not having our extended family close, in Brazil we were never alone, either our home was full or we were at a family or friends house but now…we only had each other. Hearing the phone ring at night always brought a feeling of dread as those midnight calls were generally to inform us that a loved one was unwell or had passed. To this day my heart pounds if the phone buzzes in the middle of the night, the memory of hearing I had just lost someone I dearly loved but had not seen for years was not easy to swallow. But somehow my parents, we, got through it.

I can’t tell you how hard both of my parents worked here in Australia, worked to learn the language, worked to make friends, worked to be understood, worked to battle prejudice, worked to make my brother and I happy, worked put food on the table and a roof over our head and worked to keep us to connected with our family in Brazil by taking holidays home every once in a while. They f#@&en worked HARD, so bloody HARD.

It brought me nothing but joy seeing them sell our family home recently for a price that not even the real estate agent expected, they set a record for a post warm home in their area. Why does it bring me so much joy? Because they were looked down upon when they bought a humble post war home, because they battled through sickness and touch times to pay for his humble home, because they believed that a home is where love lives and love…love is what this home was made out of and that is ALL that mattered.

In 1985 one Lettieri migrated to Australia…36 years later in 2021 there are 13 Lettieri’s and counting! We arrived with stars in our eyes and fire in our belly and today, all these years on we continue to strive with the goodness of our hearts.

My pai and mãe left all they knew behind to provide a better future for my brother and I, they didn’t wear a cape while doing it but… they wore kindness in their eyes and their love in their hearts.

Pai and Mãe, thank you. Thank you for giving up your own lives in a place you called home to begin from zero in building a better future for mano and I. I may not know everything that you gave up but I do know that the gratitude I have for your sacrifices is one that will forever be present in my own heart.

In seeing the hero in you, I see the hero in me. The woman I am today is due to the person you taught me to be simply by being you…forever grateful to have the honour to call you both pai & mãe.

Amo vocês, Beta.