Rosa Valente, 66 years old, worked as a cook in restaurants and in elderly care institutions when, at 52, a heart operation interrupted her career. After seven months of medical leave, she was left without work and could not return to the job market. "They didn't give me more work," she told the newspaper O MIRANTE.
Without being able to find new job opportunities in the cooking field, Rosa looked for an alternative and discovered that a shop dedicated to Arraiolos and wool, located on Rua Carvalho Araújo in Ourém, was about to close. She decided to take over the space and, at the time of the report published in March, had already been running the establishment for about eleven years.
Although sewing had been part of her life since she was young in the village where she lived, having learned to sew and producing clothes for other people, Rosa had never worked formally in that area. In the business, besides commercializing articles such as wool, sewing materials, pajamas and baby articles, she produced her own pieces for sale and accepted small alterations.
The activity did not generate great profits, but Rosa explained that "the shop pays for itself," managing to cover its own expenses. At 66, she continued to manage the establishment while waiting for pension age, without the report indicating any pension already assigned.
