When we built the house in 1978, we couldn't see the sea. There were two blocks in front of the house, then the Avenida Atlantica, which was asphalted and had a sidewalk, and then a huge stretch of sand before you finally got to the beach. We never imagined that one day it would reach our house. Now, erosion has destroyed 500 houses, and more are at risk as the sea pushes inland by up to 150 metres in the next 30 years.
In 2019, I was on the balcony of my bedroom when my neighbour in front called me, asking me to film the sea, which was beating hard against the side of her house. The base of the wall was already gone, because the sea was taking the sand from beneath the ground floor. I filmed it on my phone, then sent it to her, and when I looked up, I saw water coming in through the part of the wall that had fallen. It's like living in a sandcastle.
My children started saying I should move as the sea advanced. In a way, the rubble from the neighboring Julinho building protected my house, but the sea was slowly advancing. I was trying to follow the state of the tides as if I were a fisher, contemplating my decision to stay despite the warnings.
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