April 25, 2026, 52 years after the Carnation Revolution
There is a vase of carnations on our table this week. Pink, peach, soft yellow, deep purple, the white ones streaked with magenta as if someone painted them by hand. I bought them at Costco. They are not heroic flowers. They are not from a Lisbon market or a soldier’s rifle barrel. They came home in a paper sleeve, stems trimmed, leaves a little bruised. And they are perfect.
I bought them because Mama loves carnations. She always has. She sees them and her face changes, softer, younger, somewhere I cannot follow her. Caregiving teaches you to chase moments like that.
And every time I bring carnations into the house, I tell her the same story.
What Happened on April 25, 1974
Fifty-two years ago today, the people of Portugal ended nearly five decades of authoritarian rule. They did it with songs on the radio, soldiers who refused to fire, and ordinary people who came into the streets and pressed carnations into the barrels of the rifles. The revolution took its name from those flowers. Not from the men with weapons. From the people who chose flowers instead.
I tell Mama this story every time. She nods. Sometimes she remembers, sometimes she does not. It does not matter. The story is for both of us. Cristina told me that story when I was in Lisbon, staying in one of the best Airbnb’s one can dream. It is a reminder that the world has, at least once, watched a dictatorship fall to a chorus of voices and a fistful of red carnations. It can happen again. It must.
To Cristina, Fernando, and Carlos
This post is for you, my dear Portuguese friends, and for everyone in your families and communities I never had the chance to meet, but who carry this day in their bones.
Thank you for the warmth you have offered me. Thank you for the conversations, the food, the laughter, and the quiet moments where I felt I had known you for years. Portugal lives in the way you welcome strangers. Portugal lives in your generosity, your music, your sense that life is meant to be tasted slowly and shared widely.
Today is your day. Parabéns. Viva o 25 de Abril. Viva a liberdade.
I am celebrating with you from Winnipeg, with carnations from Costco, and a heart that is genuinely, deeply grateful that the Carnation Revolution happened. Because of April 25, 1974, you grew up in a Portugal that was free. Because of that freedom, I had the joy of meeting you.
From Lisbon to Kyiv
I cannot write about a peaceful revolution against tyranny without thinking of Ukraine.
Since 2014, the people of Ukraine have stood in the path of russian aggression. Every Saturday since February 2022, at three o’clock near Kamloops City Hall (as I write this post), our small community gathers in solidarity with Ukrainians who refuse to be erased. We have done this for over two hundred consecutive Saturdays. We will keep doing it for as long as it takes.
I have watched, with a full heart, how the people of Portugal have stood with Ukraine. You have opened your homes, your schools, your borders. You have remembered what it is to live under boots, and you have refused to look away. That is not a small thing. That is the inheritance of April 25, 1974, walking forward into a new century, recognizing itself in another nation’s struggle.
The Carnation Revolution is not just a Portuguese memory. It is a global lesson. It says: regimes that look unbreakable can break. Soldiers can choose people over orders. Songs can change the course of history. Flowers can be louder than guns.
May the spirit of April 25 keep travelling. May it find its way to every place where people are still waiting for their own carnation morning.
A Carnation Garden in Kamloops
One day, I want to plant carnations in Kamloops. Not just buy them. Plant them. A row of them where Mama can see, where neighbours can stop and look, where I can tell the story to children walking past. That flower? That flower is from Portugal. That flower is what freedom looks like when freedom is gentle.
For now, the Costco carnations will do, and today, even after standing in the longest Costco line on Regent Avenue, carnations were there and allowed people to enjoy the beauty they bring. They are bright, they are alive, they are sitting on our table with a Ukrainian flag in the background and a painting of mountains on the wall in Kamloops and in places around Winnipeg. They have done their work. They made Mama smile, and the Canadian family too. They reminded me of friends I am proud to know. They held space for a country I love from a distance.
To the people of Portugal: thank you. Thank you for the example. Thank you for the welcome. Thank you for standing with Ukraine. Thank you for the carnations.
Viva o 25 de Abril. Viva Portugal. Слава Україні. Героям слава.
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