Celeste Caeiro, the lady who handed out red carnations to soldiers on their way to ending Portugal’s 40 year right-wing dictatorship, has died aged 91.
Her death comes just 7 months after the 50th anniversary of the nearly bloodless leftist coup. It triggered an outpouring of sorrow and gratitude online and in official statements, with the Portuguese Communist Party remembering "comrade Celeste" as "a working woman with strong convictions", Reuters reports.
The flowers had been meant to celebrate the first anniversary of the Lisbon restaurant where she worked as a cloakroom attendant. But when she arrived for work her boss, who’d been listening to an uncensored private radio station, told her to take them home because he was closing the restaurant. “Something’s going on,” he said. “We don’t want them to go to waste.”
In interviews over the years, Celeste recalled that when a soldier passing by in an infantry column asked her for a cigarette, she gave him a flower instead. He stuck the carnation in the barrel of his gun and soon other soldiers were doing the same, as photographers captured pictures that came to symbolise the almost bloodless coup. The Portuguese Communist Party paid tribute to "comrade Celeste" as "a working woman with strong convictions,” Reuters reports, in English.
"The most beautiful moment of our democracy would not have been as beautiful without Celeste Caeiro. Thank you for everything," journalist Helio Carvalho wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Photo shared by @publico.pt
