I did eat her cooking but to my defense she died when I was a child!
After a little investigation it happens that Rosa who worked for my grandparents from an early age and helped raise their three children was actually paid. Like with the woman in the article, she was a country girl with no education from a very poor family who just got taken in by a richer family. I am not sure exactly when she got hired and if she was hired by my grandparents or great-grandparents, but we are talking Portugal in 1910s or 1920s. I strongly suspect that at the time when a poor family of farmers had a girl they could not afford to pay for her marriage or education so being sent to work as a maid or sent to the convent were the two main options. Unlike the people in the article though, my grandparents were actually wealthy (not super wealthy but still), my grandfather was the polar opposite of a gambling philanderer and he treated people his employees well. That being said, the notion of work hours was not exactly on the table, she sent almost all of her money to family members and, like the woman in the article, she taught herself to read... but to be able to read the bible. This religious aspect probably allowed her to have a free day a week, since the odd sect they gradually all belonged to (adventism) forbids people to work on Saturday.
After the death of my grandparents she worked for a while for my aunt and then for someone else (possibly an elderly family member?) back at her village of origin. I don't think she went along swimmingly with my grandmother, but as far as I know, she was never abused. "Just" overworked.
Born and raised in Switzerland, I only met her during family trips to Portgual in the '80s when I was a child. The only lasting memory I have of her is that when grilling sardines on a small grill, she would rearrange the coal with her bare hands!
