She had no children, but adopted an entire Helisul to take care of. Her name is Irotides Torquato. For those close to you, Tide, the ‘coffee lady’ at the company’s base in Curitiba, inside Bacacheri Airport. The employee is 66 years old and has been with the operator for ’31 and some broken’, as she herself says. “I’ve lost count,” she laughs.
Tide was born in Rio das Antas, a city in western Paraná, almost 500 kilometers from the state capital. It was there where she lived most of her life with her parents and ten siblings, on her grandfather’s farm. She says she wasn’t lazy. Everyone put their hand in the land and worked on the rice, bean and, get this, coffee plantations.
Time passed, the family had brief periods of residence in Apucarana and Rosário do Ivaí, both in the North of Paraná. As an adult, Tide ended up in Colombo, in the metropolitan region of Curitiba, where she still lives today. Her father passed away, some brothers too, and others are scattered around.
In the house that was once full of people, today there are only three women. Tide shares the home with her younger sister, with whom she shares care with her mother. As the eldest of all the siblings, Tide has been involved in caring for everyone around her since childhood.
Maybe that’s why her maternal spirit is so present. Not only does she feel in this position within Helisul, but many of the employees themselves see her that way. “It’s like my home. As if it were the house and my children. They even fight with me, they get mad, ”she says with a laugh.
Ties with the Helisul family were further strengthened around 2007 until 2011, when Tide went through a very delicate period. She discovered breast cancer and was forced to change the routine she loves so much. More painful than the treatment itself was having to leave the workplace and day-to-day companions for so long.
Thrilled, she says that the six months of leave planned by the doctors turned into an interminable three years and nine months. “Wow, it was horrible,” she recalls through her tears. But if the mother couldn’t go to the children, they went to the mother, as Tide recalls. “I had direct contact with people from work. They went home. When I returned, everything went back to how it was before. They said I wasn’t supposed to come back yet, but I didn’t want to stay at home anymore. And it all worked out.”
If it were up to Tide, she would live inside Helisul. But she ask Miss Tide to a dance, see if she won’t drop everything for a good shuffle. That’s why, incidentally, she never wanted to ‘join’ anyone.
“I never got married because I’m a dancer. Boyfriend doesn’t like me to go to the dance and I always liked it. It’s been about 40 years since I’ve had a boyfriend, but if I go to a dance, I’ll go. I wouldn’t miss one at the União Bacacheri draft beer party”, she reveals.
Her favorite song is caipira, as she describes it. And, it seems, the whole family is quite lively. “My brother-in-law does dinners, birthdays, he likes to party and off we go”, she says.
Jack of all trades
When she entered Helisul, recommended by a neighbor, Tide did cleaning work, but he was always a jack of all trades. From helping to push the aircraft to holding the door for someone to fasten the screw or even answering the phone. “All my life I wanted to do it, nobody forced me to. If it’s to help, I’ll help, but don’t step on my toes either”, she jokes.
And she ensures that she has nothing to complain about. “I like everything here, I can’t complain about anything. If you complain about anything I’m lying. There are a lot of people, everyone treats me well. Even if I work for free, I don’t pay what they did for me, ”she says.
Tide works from 7 am to 5 pm. From home to the service is quick, it takes only ten minutes. For those who don’t know, she is already retired, but far from thinking about stopping. “Why am I staying at home if I feel good here? They are very good people.”
