When you arrive, Ramon is busy by your father’s bed. He wheels aside the table, pulls the walker into place. It’s the second time he’s drawn your dad, and you’re relieved to see him. He is calm and gently competent. He doesn’t get upset like Biljana, yesterday’s aide who couldn’t understand why your dad insisted on speaking to her in a language (Hungarian) that she (being Bosnian) could not comprehend. On Ramon he’s trying Portuguese.

“Como é você?” he says. “Como é o tempo?”... Read more