Who was Lino Melhado Filho?
Lino Antonio Melhado Filho, born in July 1973 and passed away in May 2024, was a Brazilian thinker. Not famous and widely known, but definitely a thinker.
Son of Mariza and of a father also named Lino, Lino Filho was married for 32 years to Márcia and had 3 children: Lino Neto, Bruno Vinicius and Beatriz.
Lino Filho lived in many parts of Brazil, spending his childhood and adolescence in São Paulo, and most of his adult life in Limeira, a city in the countryside of São Paulo state, where his 3 children were born. He also lived for a time in Guarujá, Belém and Fortaleza.
Lino Filho worked almost his entire life: he started as an office boy, sold beer on the beach, worked at a video rental store, sold popsicles, sold kites, was an entrepreneur in the waterproofing business, and in the last 15 years of his life he was a craftsman — a profession he built alongside his wife, creating one of the most recognized names in Brazil for handmade wedding cake toppers in Biscuit — Márcia Melhado - Arte em Biscuit.
Lino Melhado Filho.
Lino Filho was a questioner. He questioned every absolute certainty.
Lino Filho was an agent of change. He didn't accept things he considered wrong, and always suggested changes in posture or in our daily attitudes.
Lino Filho was always a student, even without encouragement from his parents. In recent years, his hobby was to study and learn new things and new concepts. He loved Egyptian culture, binged documentaries on ancient societies, and more recently became a self-taught theologian. Knowing only what was necessary to live was not enough for him — he devoted himself to acquiring knowledge.
Lino Filho was skeptical. He loved those History and Discovery documentaries, such as "Ancient Aliens," "The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch," "Secrets of the Bible" and other conspiracy-themed series. He believed we are not alone in the universe — that they are already among us. One of his dreams was to witness, one day, a live broadcast announcing the discovery or public acknowledgment of extraterrestrial life.
More recently, Lino Filho was fascinated by artificial intelligence and quantum computing. He believed the next technological leap would come from the union of these two fields. One of his favorite internet pastimes was content on quantum physics.
Lino Filho was a philosopher. Yes — a thinker who tries to expand his ideas beyond the common field and pass them on to others can certainly be called a philosopher. Lino studied philosophy intensely, sharing with his children videos, blogs, sites, and authors on the subject.
Lino Filho taught his children to be São Paulo FC fans, even though lately he no longer followed football as much as he once did.
Lino Filho and his wife Márcia.
Lino Filho loved the family he built. He became a father at 18, without the support of a father and mother who practically abandoned him to the world when he was still so young. He knew drugs and addiction, yet still had 3 children and — for now — 2 grandchildren. He supported his family for decades and passed on his values and principles. He was immensely proud of his children and wife.
Lino Filho was a wonderful grandfather. Together with his wife, he cared many times for his first grandchild, Bernardo. They played with clay, with paper airplanes, with toy cars… Bernardo, to this day, adores the "little grandpa," a nickname given by the grandchild himself.
Lino Filho loved music — especially a well-played, well-thought rock 'n' roll. He loved Alice in Chains, his favorite band, and Grunge as a whole. The melancholy present in that style always accompanied him, because of how he had to face his problems alone, from childhood.
Lino Filho was tough, very strict in his reactions and words, but his intent was always the growth and evolution of everyone around him.
In the last years of his life he fought against chemical dependency. Family conflicts and distancing would lead him to relapses. He was hospitalized a few times at rehabilitation clinics, from which he always drew great benefit and always reconnected to his spirituality.
Lino had flaws, like all of us. Friction with other family members was normal. But as he himself used to say, friction is precisely a consequence of closeness, of being together. So, from the family's point of view, his virtues far outweighed his flaws — perhaps on a 99/1 scale.
Lino's last public WhatsApp status read: "The only thing I'm sure of is that I'm sure of nothing." A philosophical paradox of his personality — even without certainty of anything, Lino had one absolute certainty about life: that life does not end here.
Lino Filho was a spiritual person. He sought God and an understanding of his purpose with all his strength, until his last day. He had no particular religion, but he was religious in his habits: watching the sunrise whenever possible, praying and talking to God upon waking and before sleeping, being grateful for the life he had, regardless of the difficulties.
Lino Filho is my DAD.
One day before his departure from this plane, Lino — as was his habit — presented a song to his children and asked them to learn to play it. Sadly, there was no time for his wish to become reality while he was alive. The song is called "Projeto no Deserto" ("Project in the Desert"), by the group "Voz da Verdade".
"Projeto no Deserto" by Voz da Verdade.
This song tells of God's plan for the Israelites who lived 40 years in the desert in the name of a divine promise — and how, despite every hardship imposed by the desert, they still fulfilled the mission God gave them. It is a biblical story Lino identified with, since his life was a project in the desert — an inhospitable place, yet wherever God is, the blessing is.
My father left this world prematurely in May 2024, at the age of 50, due to a pulmonary thromboembolism.
He leaves behind a wife who is the love of his life (and vice versa), three children who love him like a hero, and two grandchildren who will remember him as a great grandfather and friend.
My father's mission was to build this family, to empower and prepare it for the world, to imprint his ideas and worldview on each of us. And that was done.
Now Lino Filho begins a new spiritual journey, sustained by the love his family sends him daily, continuing, as always, his evolution.
Dad, I will never forget your laws, and in my heart I will forever keep your teachings.
Lino Filho observing the stars with a telescope.