Celeste Caeiro

She was born in Lisbon, in the parish of Socorro, in May 1933. In 1974 she was 40, lived in the Chiado and worked at the Sir, a self-service restaurant opened in April 1973 in the Franjinhas Building, on Rua Braamcamp.¹²

On 25 April 1974 the restaurant was a year old, and the owners had bought carnations to give to the women customers. With the revolution out on the streets, it did not open, and the flowers were given to the women staff. Celeste went down to the Baixa. On Rua do Carmo, on the way to Largo do Carmo, a soldier asked her for a cigarette; she did not smoke, so she gave him a carnation — “you can give a carnation to anyone”, she recalled.² He put it in the barrel of his rifle. She said she must have given out about six carnations that morning.¹ The soldier was never identified.³

In April 2024, for the 50th anniversary of 25 April, she joined the parade on Avenida da Liberdade in a wheelchair, with her granddaughter, carnations in hand. She died on 15 November 2024, in Leiria hospital, aged 91.²⁷