Her name is Lis, a nod to both the flower and her parents’ birthplace, a country where it is a popular baby name.
Her full name, Lis Porto Neto, a combination of her mom and dad’s surnames, is also a Brazilian tradition.
“I would do it the way we do here,” says a smiling Jose Neto. “But my wife said, ‘when you hold our child in your belly for nine months, then you can decide that.’”
For those who know the story of Jose Neto and Roberta Porto, the combined name is also a powerful symbol of the unshakable bond between the first-time parents. Neto and Porto, who married five years ago on a hill overlooking downtown Calgary, have together faced — and triumphed over — challenges that many other young couples might have considered insurmountable.
It has been a real-life drama played out in public for going on seven years. On September 16, 2008, Neto, a Brazilian exchange student and his then-girlfriend Porto, who had just graduated from law school, were strolling through a downtown park after having a late dinner in Calgary’s Chinatown.
Not far from the unsuspecting pair, a fight was breaking out between two men over a cell phone. Roland Warawa, a 32-year-old habitual criminal, took out a revolver stuffed into his pants and pulled the trigger.
The shot didn’t hit the other man, but instead travelled another 40 metres before striking Neto in the face. The young man, who came close to dying, lost both his eyes.
This could have been just another horrific crime story that would in time fade into local lore. But there was something about Neto that transfixed the city and country: when he finally spoke publicly a week later, it was love and gratitude, not hate and anger, that became his central message.
He praised Canada and its beauty, making sure to thank fellow Calgarians for coming to his and Porto’s aid; two years later, when Warawa was declared a dangerous offender and sent to prison indefinitely, he wished for him “peace, and that he will someday change his own life for the better.”
Jose Neto and his wife Roberta hold their infant daughter Lis in their Calgary home on Wednesday, August 26, 2015.
Not surprisingly, Neto’s message of hope after tragedy is one that has resonated with the people of his adopted city. Seven years after the innocent bystander nearly died on a downtown street, he says he is stopped almost daily by people who want to give him a hug, let him know how his courage and kindness have impacted them.
“It is really rewarding,” says Neto, who decided not long after the tragedy he wanted to make Calgary his home, thanks to the outpouring of compassion and community support he and Porto received. “You don’t realize that you’re an inspiration.”
It’s an ongoing appreciation he credits to simply being himself. When he was first hurt, he says some people urged him to downplay his gratitude for simply surviving, for having the support of his friends, family and fellow Calgarians.
“People said, you gotta be less positive, you’ll get more money,” he says with a chuckle. “I didn’t play a character.”
His gratitude, he says, has prompted him to open his home to this journalist on Wednesday, a day where the news headlines are dominated by gloomy economic numbers and another tragic high-profile shooting, that of two TV journalists in the U.S. state of Virginia.
“People like to know how we are doing,” he says, knowing his long road to recovery has been chronicled in the media. “That amazes me, that they still care.”
That answer, in both Neto’s words and his now-familiar smile, is very well indeed. The past year, he says, has been an abundance of riches. In December, he and Porto, now 32, received their Canadian citizenship; not long after, she found out she was pregnant with their first child.
“We found out one week before Christmas,” he says, just days before they were to board a plane to Brazil to spend the holidays with family. “We didn’t tell anyone until we got there.”
Neto, who recently started up his own massage therapy practice called Cure Massage Therapy (curemassagetherapy.com), says that he would be lying if he didn’t admit it sometimes pains him to know he will never lay eyes on Lis, a beautiful raven-haired girl born on August 15.
Since he lost his sight, though, he says other senses have become more intense; the most, his ability to feel energy and love.
“It’s like I’m seeing her,” he says. “I don’t need that necessity … I feel fulfilled.”
He says little girl’s name, the French word for lily, is perfect for what he hopes will be the first of two or three children.
“She is very summery, very beautiful,” he says as he strokes her thick black hair.
“I love who I am, I love what I do. I love where I am,” he says, proving himself an enduring inspiration. “That is what moves me — being so grateful for what I have now.”
