I was deeply IN LOVE with Tom Jobim. I used to collect everything I could find about him. Newspaper cutouts, all the albums, I would study everything concerning Tom. He was the supreme idol to me. My friends thought I was a little eccentric. Come on, to be such a great fan of a guy in his fifties!

Still, Tom Jobim was all I was interested in; and in that month of August 1988, the absolute genius would be autographing his books at the São Paulo Book Bienal. I heard the news in the morning and spent the whole afternoon getting ready to look well to my idol. With trembling hands I approached him to have him autograph a very beautiful book of photographs taken by Ana, his wife, and texts written by him. The legendary figure that I thought would be so far away, smiled a friendly smile at me. I showed him my collection of photos, albums, newspaper cutouts, and he pulled me aside to be closer to him, Ana and João Francisco, his son. Tom and João seemed to be the same age. They laughed a lot and talked like children. Tom played with his son, and the boy would roar with laughter. Ana reprimanded them all the time: "Tom, João, stop it, be quiet." I asked João if he enjoyed living in New York; he said he did, from his apartment he could see the Central Park and it was all very nice. I asked him if he missed Rio; he said he did, and he was sad to see how polluted the beaches were. An interesting remark for a boy of eight. Who else could have influenced him as to ecological concerns?

Between one autograph and another, on litlle pieces of wrinkled paper that schoolboys would hand to him, Tom showed his skills as an ambidextrous. He would write one word with his right hand, followed by another written with his left. He would write his name and João's backwards. A childlike game! He corrected João Francisco's date of birth in a biography written by Sérgio Cabral that I happened to have with me, and said that if he had blue eyes like Helena's he would be a Hollywood star. I spent two hours with the master. The genius that seemed a bit cornered at the book fair that day. Not even a sip of whisky? But he never complained about the thousands of autographs, the photos, the interviews... At the end of the day Jorge Amado and Zélia Gattai showed up; they had also been autographing their books; the five of them left. Before leaving the Genius kissed me on the forehead and I was enchanted by so much simplicity; only a superior being could be so unassuming!

I would only see my idol in musical shows again, but I have listened to his music and studied his work with diligence since I was thirteen. As a matter of fact, Tom was quite an unusual idol for a girl my age, but the greatest of all, absolutely. I couldn't have learned more from anyone else. I used to tell my friends at school everything I had learned about Tom by heart. My schoolmates would find me even stranger. I used to dream about Tom. Everyone knew of my deep feelings for him: my parents and my brothers and sisters were quite influenced by me. So much so that he is a unanimous preference in a family of twenty-year-old youngsters. When people talked about Tom Jobim, the ones who knew me would soon be reminded of me. They would ask me about Tom and Bossa Nova. I was a kind of link between the youth involved in rock 'n' roll and the true, pure Brazilian music.

When Tom was gone I was pregnant. All my friends called me to know how I was doing after hearing the sad news, for they all knew how much the idol meant to me. I watched the news on television with tears rolling down my cheeks. That's it; Tom is gone but his memorable musical work will always be part of our history; and people like you, Luiz, will always contribute to make his work known; the work of the great musical genius of the 20th. century.

Ana Paula is an architect and lives in Brasília.

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