I had spent more than 6 months trying to find how we should define the company. I didn't know what to do and no idea worked for me. I knew I wanted something with meaning, but honestly nothing that was presented to me as an option felt right.

On December 24th, while we were together as a family exchanging gifts, I received a present from my maternal grandmother — we lovingly called her Omi, which means grandmother in German. Omi gave me a small jewelry box with 2 items inside. One was a pair of gold cufflinks my great-grandfather (her father) used to wear, and the other a medallion that HIS father had given him as well.

I didn't think much of the medallion because I didn't quite understand it. I asked my Omi: “Omi, this medallion — what is it?” To which she answered: “I had it there, it was my father's, and I wanted to give it to you.” I didn't know it at that moment, but I had just received the best gift I have ever received!

The medallion is golden in color. On one side it has a small wooden boat with 3 people aboard in what looks like a raging sea. On the other side, a knight on his horse slaying a dragon. Above the boat you can read in Latin “in tempestate securitas,” and on the knight's side it read “S.Georgivs eqvitvm patronvs.” When I started looking for more information about the medallion, I began to find a series of messages that seem to come from beyond.

First I looked up the meaning of “in tempestate securitas,” which in Latin means safety in the storm. Instantly I knew that what I had just received was going to influence not only my life but the future of our company. How can it be that my Austro-Hungarian great-grandfather, who died in 1959 in Rio de Janeiro, carried this medallion with him — and that he left it to my grandmother and not to his other children?

Knowing now that I was standing before a message from beyond, I kept digging for information about this medallion. It turns out the 3 people in the boat are Jesus and his disciples. The story comes from Mark 4:36 and goes like this:

And leaving the crowd, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat; and there were also other boats with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. And he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him and said to him: Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea: Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And he said to them: Why are you so afraid? How is it that you have no faith? And they were filled with great fear and said to one another: Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?

It turns out this medallion was worn by Austro-Hungarian sailors for protection at sea! How can it be that this reaches me 60 years after my great-grandfather's death, when what I love most is navigating difficult seas! When, on top of that, our daily life depends on the water, we build boats, and we are constantly facing adverse situations at sea! I truly could not believe it.

“Prorsum” is on the emblem of Omi's family. Its meaning in Latin is “forward” — and my Omi lived her life that way! Always forward, never looking back!

From a 36-room castle in Austria-Hungary to having to leave her home, her country and her friends because of communism. She went from having everything to having to plant and tend her crops in Brazil with her own hands — literally starting from 0.

I never heard her complain about different times or lament something that happened in the past. A tireless woman, intelligent, firm, far ahead of her time. She cared for us with love but with temperance, she prayed for us, and she was always by our side when we needed her.

I have no words to describe her; I can only honor her and live life the way she did.

Forward, always!

In your honor, Omi — you gave me the best gift in the world, you marked the path for us as you always did for our family. From now on we have a new motto that will define us as people, as a family and as a company.

Thank you for so much, I love you very much — fly high! We will miss you forever! You don't know what you meant to me, what you taught me and how you marked my life. It turns out that, after everything, the best gift you gave me was having you as my grandmother!