Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro: 26oC, warm, sunny, and slightly overcast.
Thursday has arrived again. I should have gone to Copacabana to give a class to Dona Vera every Tuesday and Thursday.
Unfortunately, she has had some health problems and has been hospitalised. She is over 80 years old, and in the last six months, I think she has been to the hospital at least four or five times. When she fell and broke her shoulder three or four months ago, she had to have various emergency surgeries. When I later met her, I could feel and see that her health was declining little by little.
In the past, I had been giving English classes to Dona Rosa, who passed away at 89. I taught her for about eight or nine years, giving her classes once a week. Her English was perfect for a Brazilian, and I learned a lot from her as time went by. Her strong personality made it difficult for her children to control her.
However, I was often able to reason with her, and she was always fair and very straightforward, but, at times, her frankness could be hurtful. One day, she fell and was hospitalised for a week, and when I saw her again after two or three weeks, she was not the same Dona Rosa I knew and loved.
I also had the same experience with an old friend when I lived in Flamengo for the first time. I became part of a group of other dog owners who would take their dogs to Aterro, the main park in Flamengo, every day and on weekends. On Fridays, we would have a barbecue, and a local street vendor and a friend would sell us beer and soft drinks. He would also organise everything, so we just had to take the dogs and show up.
This group had over forty people, but I only really liked four or five who I thought were great. One of them was Celso, a six-foot-tall guy in his mid-50s, strong as an ox. I had a strong friendship with Celso for many years and always considered him a very good person.
Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with cancer and had to undergo chemotherapy. I saw him four to five months after starting his chemo treatment, and the once tall, muscular man was now a fragile old man who looked like he was in his 90s. It seemed as if all the life had been sucked out of him. I was utterly shocked.
I remember Dona Vera from when she started studying at my school. She was a beautiful, sophisticated woman in her mid-70s, invariably well-dressed and wearing bright red lipstick. She exuded self-esteem and confidence. Sadly, nowadays, she is just a fraction of her former self, fragile and worn down by the battles and injuries of life. I want to help her as much as I can until the end. She has been a role model for me.
So, I did not have to go to Copacabana in the middle of the afternoon. Instead, I rested and gave classes in the evening. That was the plan for the day.
Yasmin and I have been clashing a lot. I have expressed my thoughts; now it is time to see what will happen.
In bed by 11:00 pm.
Thank you.
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Richard
