Brazil lost this Saturday, its biggest chronicler. Luis Fernando Verissimo left us at 88. If you have never read it, you don’t know what you are losing. Your chronicles are great. And I say this as a mere reader, without any pretense of a structured analysis of those who have studied their texts or their style of writing. Verissimo covered by the newspaper The globe Three World Cup. So that in one of them, the 2002, in the South Korea and JapanI was part of the team and had the honor of living with him for just over a month. He arrived from a literary fair in Australia.
I was a newspaper reporter Diary of S.Paulowhich belonged to Globo organizations at the time. I was the only paulista to join the The globe In that pantry. We were most of the time in the metallurgical city of Ulsan, in South Korea, where the Brazilian team of Felipão set up its base. Verissimo “was one of us” of the coverage, if I can say that. In fact, he was the verissimus, and all of us reporters after information. Tadeu Aguiar was our coordinator. It was he who had to tell Verissimo that we all had to sleep in a makeshift Korean motel in the city. It was an active vertical motel, as we rented only part of the rooms available on two floors. Verissimo took a good one.
That World Cup had a particularity: All games in Brazil took place in different cities. So, after the preparation phase and, especially, in the part played in Japan, our team set up and dismantled the camp. He made and undoed bags. And I always went by bus to the cities. There was a karaoke on the bus. Verissimo did not get excited, but neither complained or took his smile from his face.
A “colleague” of work
The other columnist who was with us was Artur Xexéowhich left us earlier in June 2021. But Xexéo was more restless, fun and with sensational shots of everything and everyone. Verissimo was not to talk much. It seemed that nothing bothered him. He walked slowly, without wasting energy. He took to that coverage his wife, Dona Lucia, with whom she married in 1963. A person’s sympathy, but the opposite of her husband.
Dona Lucia was a chatter in the morning cafes, where most would gather before the toil. He spoke for her and Verissimo. He talked about him, her children (three in all, two girls and a boy)… was excited like us. Now imagine my joy of having Luis Fernando Verissimo not as an interviewee, but as a “colleague” of work. It was the Verissimo, hey!
Inter fan
I remember sometimes we felt side by side in the press room to write. But online sites still crawled, there were no social networks or streaming. Video was TV thing. There was basically newspaper, TV and radio basically. So I wondered what Verissimo was writing, what only he had captured in that workout or game… Who would be your character? These were fun days and conquering the penta. Times that no longer come back.
SIGA THE FOOTBALL
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Therefore, today is a sad day for Brazilians who have learned to admire Luis Fernando Verissimo. Thus, I share with friends these short stories that I keep in my memory with love with a work alongside this great writer, Inter fan and passionate about life and people, who knew how to portray them in their chronicles. Here is the hug to Dona Lucia.
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