ProJo: Intergenerational Farmers Market Project bridges gap between the ages

Maria Bashide, an 87-year-old immigrant from Cabo Verde, has befriended a group of high school students in Central Falls through the program. The teens say they learn a lot from her stories and wisdom.

CENTRAL FALLS — Maria Bashide, an 87-year-old immigrant from Cabo Verde, was serious as she leaned forward to tell her adopted netas, granddaughters, some advice on life, in a small conference room at Forand Manor, 30 Washington St. Her gray hair set in place with precision hair-pinning and her eyes closing ever so slightly, so as to convey the seriousness of her intentions.

“What can they learn from me?” she asked rhetorically, referring to her teenage friends in Portuguese. “Make sure you maintain the wisdom in your head. Be obedient so that you can be happy.

“In this way, you can be sure you're not alone,” she continued. “You can make sure that —”

″— You don't have to live alone,” replied 16-year-old Sara Lopes-Tavares, a Portuguese immigrant of Cabo Verdean descent and a student at Central Falls High School. “But you don't need to get married neither.”

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