| Neila's Story |
 Central Park inNew York City, August 1994 |
The Background In 1992 the family moved to Richardson, Texas from São Paulo, Brazil. It was not an easy move: Kendall had come six months earlier to find a job and the burden of organizing the move fell to me--and I had been out of the country so long I had lost my permanent residence. Our two youngest, Raquel and Christopher moved with us, and they had the usual difficulties of making new friends in a new school and adapting to a new culture. Nevertheless, by 1994 I was happy working in the children's department of our local public library, Raquel was a freshman at The University of North Texas, and Christopher was a senior at Richardson High School Claudia, our eldest, chose to stay in São Paulo |
| where she taught at the school all the kids had atteneded and where I had worked, Pan American Christian
Academy. Kendall had decided to stay with his job at
American Airlines: with family on two continents, the ease and cost of travel the company provided employees were godsends in spite of the meagre salary. All in all, the family had settled into a frugal but conformtable routine. Many factors influenced Kendall's decision to move back to the states, but one of the most important were his aging parents . They were 82 and 89 years old at the time and fast approchaing and age when they would no longer be able to take care of themselves. With no brothers or sisters Kendell strongly felt responsibe for them. Indeed, we had had been back only two years when his father fell and broke his hip and began an extended hospital stay. It forced Kendall had to take a three month leave of absense to deal with his parents' affairs, eventually bringing them into our home. But this was a life event anticipated in the elderly and we did not view it as the tragedy it foreshadowed.
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