Somebody once wrote that all people are born "a little bit happy or a little bit sad." My daughter-in-law and her husband, my son, were both born sunny-side up. Each has a bright soul, good-natured, trusting, always seeing the good in others.
Me, I'm an asshole. Ana has put her trust in me. Like Inspector Clouseau to Kato, she has instructed me to push her relentlessly and to "pay no attention to what I say." But I do pay attention to what she says and I can't be an asshole to her. She's too good a person.
Ana instructed me long ago to correct her English anytime. "When you apply for residency, they don't like to hear when you mispronounce a word." Very sensible. But in the middle of reading a board question? As Inspector Clouseau would admonish Kato, "This is neither the time nor the place!"
I can be a goof, however. I will say, "Excuse me?" when she mispronounces a word, and she laughs. So I push it. She says a word wrong, sometimes from sheer fatigue, or reverses the order of an abbreviation, "Th1" is an example. "HT1" Ana will say. "That's how we say it in Portuguese," by way of explanation. "Yeah well, see, we're in America now." She laughs heartily. "Diaphragm" is mangled as something like "diaphragmata." "What is that, Latin?"
One question on flashcards that she always got wrong was "Obese people have _____levels of lipid." The answer is obvious to a layman, "increased"--fat people have more fat!--but the USMLE tries to trick medical students with similar-sounding questions. There is a corollary to that one, "Lipocyte levels are ____ in obese people". The answer there is "decreased". When I see Ana hesitating over either of those questions, sometimes I will bend my face toward her and look at her accusingly. A couple of times I have cocked an imaginary gun at her temple. It all makes it fun for both of us, but only a good-natured, trusting soul like Ana would take it always in good humor.
The first time I ever met Ana was a five-minute drive-by as my son was taking her to the airport. I knew immediately that she was the One and texted my son "She's a keeper, don't fuck this up." My instant opinion has only been reinforced, constantly, since that first impression.
