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“She had a heart attack?” I asked.
Rio had nodded. “Yes.”
So my father, only a teenager at the time, had likely seen his mother decline in health rapidly before succumbing to a sudden cardiac arrest that took her life. And what did he do in response? He moved to New York, learned English, started his own company, made his first million, then started a foundation to help the medical clinics along the Amazon... likely in the hopes that another teenager wouldn’t lose his own mother in the same way.
How utterly heartbreaking, Dad.
Dr. Lacerda gave us a thorough tour of the hospital, pointing out the machines and technology afforded them by my father’s foundation, and finally stopping at a black and white framed picture of a young boy and his mother. I didn’t need him to tell me who they were. I recognized my father’s eyes.
But I stared at my grandmother for a long time—at the shape of her face, which I saw in the mirror every day, and the glossy darkness of her hair, which I’d also inherited. I had my mother’s cheekbones and my mother’s blue eyes, but Adriana was familiar to me. I could see myself in her, too.
“You are okay?” asks Rio as we speed back up toward the Amazon.
“I am,” I say, standing beside him at the boat’s controls, the wind whipping my hair away from my face. “Still processing.”
“Your dad must have been...” He stops, shaking his head. “He did a lot of good here.”
“I wish I’d known.”
He shrugs. “Now you do.”
Now you do.
A voice in my head that sounds very much like my dad’s follows up with:
Now do something about it.
“My father was born in Uarini,” I tell him. “Can you take me there? For his final resting place?”
Rio nods at me. “Of course. Tomorrow? We have a free night. I can take you then.”
“Obrigado,” I tell him, meaning it from the bottom of my heart.
“De nada,” he says.
“I know that one. It means ‘you’re welcome’.”
“You willalwaysbe welcome, Yara.”
***
Back at my cabin, Iwrite a message to both Don and my mother, telling them about my visit to the hospital in Juruá and expressing my desire to be more involved in the foundation.
If neither of you object, I type,I’d like to extend my trip by several weeks, and visit the other medical clinics that CCM sponsors. I can strengthen foundation operations on the ground, and make a list of needs and requests to bring back to Don. I’ve met a guide down here who can help me find an apartment in Manaus and arrange for local transportation.
I know that my plan was to concentrate on the business end of things, but we have great people in place to handle Miraflores operations. I’d like to spend some time familiarizing myself with the foundation.
I re-read the message, chewing on my lip. Just two days ago, my entire focus was the business, and now, in a matter of hours, the foundation has become my passion. I don’t want them to think I’ve lost it.
Don’t worry, Mom, I add. I’ll be back in time for the board meeting in September. I just want to honor dad’s memory by building on it. I think it’s what he would have wanted.
Nodding with satisfaction, I hit send, just as a knock on my door snaps me out of work mode. I pad to the door in bare feet only to find...
Rio.
Desidério.
My heart’s desire.
