English translation of the letter above — written in Spanish, on a phone, in the days of the Omi's farewell. Every typo and abbreviation is preserved in the Spanish original; this is a faithful rendering.

I had spent more than six months trying to figure out how we should shape the company. I didn't know what to do, and no idea felt right. I knew I wanted something with real meaning — but truly, none of the options I was shown convinced me.

On December 24th, as our family gathered to exchange gifts, I received a present from my maternal grandmother — we lovingly called her Omi, German for grandmother. Omi handed me a small jewelry box with two items inside: a pair of gold cufflinks my great-grandfather — her father — used to wear, and a medallion that HIS father had given him.

I didn't think much of the medallion, because I didn't quite understand it. I asked her: “Omi, this medallion — what is it?” She answered: “I had it there. It was my father's, and I wanted you to have it.” I didn't know it yet, but I had just received the best gift of my life!

The medallion is golden in color. On one side, a small wooden boat with three people aboard on what looks like a furious sea. On the other, a knight on horseback slaying a dragon. Above the boat, in Latin: “in tempestate securitas.” Around the knight: “S.Georgivs eqvitvm patronvs.” When I began searching for information about the medallion, I started coming across a series of messages that seemed to arrive from beyond.

First I looked up the meaning of “in tempestate securitas” — Latin for safety in the storm. Instantly I knew that what I had just received would shape not only my life, but the future of our company. How could it be that my Austro-Hungarian great-grandfather, who died in 1959 in Rio de Janeiro, had carried this medallion with him — and 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. It turns out the three people in the boat are Jesus and his disciples. The story comes from Mark 4:36, and it 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 as protection at sea! How could this reach me sixty years after my great-grandfather's death — when what I love most is navigating hard seas? When our daily life depends on the water, when we build boats, when we constantly face the sea at its worst! I truly could not believe it.

“Prorsum” appears on the emblem of Omi's family. In Latin it means “forward” — and that is exactly how my Omi lived! Always forward, never looking back! From a 36-room castle in Austria-Hungary to leaving her home, her country and her friends because of communism. From having everything to planting and tending her crops in Brazil with her own hands — literally starting from zero. I never once heard her complain about how times had changed, or mourn what the past had taken. A tireless woman — intelligent, firm, far ahead of her time. She cared for us with love and with temperance, she prayed for us, and she was there whenever we needed her. I have no words to describe her. I can only honor her, and live the way she lived.

Forward, always!

In your honor, Omi — you gave me the best gift in the world, and you marked the path for us, as you always did for this family. From this day on we have a new motto, one 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, how deeply you marked my life. It turns out that, after everything, the best gift you ever gave me was having you as my grandmother!