Early Life
In her teens she started to work, sewing garments along with her sister in Balasar.
Alexandrina said in her memories that when she went with other girls to the countryside, she ran from them and picked flowers that she later used to make flower carpets to Senhora das Dores Church in Póvoa de Varzim. One day, she started bleeding from her head, due to a crown of spines, she said. Jesus spoke to her and called her Alexandrina das Dores (Alexandrina of Sorrows).
At 14 years old, in March 1918 an incident changed her life. Her former employer along with three other men tried to break into her room. To escape them, Alexandrina jumped 13 feet down from a window, barely surviving. Her spine was broken from the fall and she suffered gradual paralysis that confined her to bed from 1925 onward. She remained bed-ridden for about 30 years.
Read more about this topic: Alexandrina Maria Da Costa
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“I have always had something to live besides a personal life. And I suspected very early that to live merely in an experience of, in an expression of, in a positive delight in the human cliches could be no business of mine.”
—Margaret Anderson (1886–1973)
“The old, subjective, stagnant, indolent and wretched life for woman has gone. She has as many resources as men, as many activities beckon her on. As large possibilities swell and inspire her heart.”
—Anna Julia Cooper (1859–1964)