The Ghost of the Fado House - A Legend from Alfama (Ep. 82)

Ines had grown up in Lisbon.

And although she had never planned to make singing her profession, music had always been part of her life.

Her grandmother listened to faro almost every evening.

And when Ines was a child, she learned several songs simply by hearing them again and again around the house.

Her grandmother never treated the songs as something they needed to be explained.

They were just a part of a way of life.

As Ines became older, she started singing herself.

She had a strong voice and she could hold a room's attention without having to force it.

But she worked during the day and only sang in small cafes when she had the opportunity.

She enjoyed performing, but she had never thought seriously about becoming a professional singer.

But that changed when a friend told her about the Casa da Saudade.

If you know or don't know about languages and translation, saudade is one of those words that it doesn't have a translation to any other languages.

Saudade is a very specific word in Portugal that means...

Missing someone, longing, nostalgia, it's this mixture of I miss you with I miss something.

So, saudade doesn't have a translation per se in English.

Casa da saudade could mean the house of nostalgia, which it doesn't actually mean that, but could be the house of longing, the house of missing.

In the sense of missing, where it has emotions involved, like caring.

And the singer, who normally performed there, had become ill, and the owner needed someone to replace her for a few evenings.

And Ines agreed to help, expecting that she would perform for a short time and then return to her normal routine.

Casa da Saudade was smaller than she expected.

The entrance opened into a narrow room with a few tables, and the little stage was barely raised above the floor.

There were photographs everywhere, many of them old enough that the faces had begun to fade.

The place had been in the family for years, and the owner, Manuel, had inherited it from his father.

And Inés liked it immediately.

The customers were quiet when the music began, the musicians were experienced, and there was none of the pressure that she had felt in larger places.