At 85 years he walked on the beach with a thermal bag full of pudim, the typical Brazilian flan. He didn't try to make a dream: he simply tried to pay for some medical exams.
It is called Vital Maria da Costa and for everyone is Seu Vital.
He lives in the metropolitan area of Recife, in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco, and sold his sweets on the beach of Casa Caiada, in the nearby town of Olinda.
For most of his life he worked as a photographer. With the passing of the years, however, that activity was no longer enough to maintain.
Then health problems came.
Problems with hips and kidneys, along with hernia, had made some medical checks necessary. Faced with the waiting times of public health, Vital sought a way to collect the money needed to make them privately.
He then decided to get himself the money he needed.
He prepared handicraft pudims, placed them in a thermal bag and began to sell them on the beach of Casa Caiada.
One dessert after another. One step later.
Until someone noticed.
After an entrepreneur, meeting him, shared his story on social media, the video began to circulate and more and more people became aware of his situation.
From that moment on, something that Vital had not predicted.
People started sending him money through Pix, the Brazilian system of instant payments, often without even asking for a dessert in return.
That form of solidarity even received a name: the virtual “pudim”.
Vital did something very personal.
He noted the names of the people who were helping him because he wanted to remember them in his prayers.
When he saw some of the sums coming, his first reaction was not euphoria.
He was worried.
He was afraid that someone might have sent him too much money by mistake and said that, in that case, he would want to return it.
But those people really wanted to help him.
The money raised thanks to solidarity allowed him to face the medical investigations he needed, and he also encouraged the hope of being able to realize a desire that he had brought with him for a long time: having a day own home.
The story of Seu Vital tells something that on social media we easily risk forgetting.
A video can become viral and disappear a few hours later. But sometimes, behind those views, there are real people who decide to turn attention into a concrete help.
Vital went out with pudims to sell because he had a problem to solve.
Then thousands of people discovered his story and some decided to pay for a dessert they would never eat.
A virtual “pudim”.
But very real help.