Dearest Family,
(written on the night of Oct. 4th, read and cleared for distribution by Bill on Oct. 5th.)
I’m writing in hopes of answering a few questions – and probably raising many more.
Certainly I will not be able to spell out every detail of what I’m here pursuing – there are a myriad small moving parts, the details of which would require a large portion of this evening to enumerate – and it is to these I hope to soon be attending again.
First and foremost – Bill’s health:
Dad is doing quite well. He has completed his course of antibiotics rigorously. His leg, looks quite good, and he is able to ambulate just as he was before this incident (which is to say, with a bit of a wobble, and not swiftly). Yesterday, Oct. 3rd. he and I walked down the hill, to the Metro on Rua do Catete, and got off at Largo do Carioca, and conducted our business there just as well as ever. After a few joint stops at businesses he and I split up, and by the time I had made my way back to the bottom of the hill – so had Bill. We took the Combi up the hill together and everything seems quite fair with him.
As for his ear – he is no longer keeping a cotton ball in it, and tomorrow I’ll need to clean the area – but there is no open wound. As to his ability to hear out of that ear – I have not probed that directly. I shall, and when I write you all again I’ll specifically address that matter.
Regarding the parasites – according to the reports I’ve heard of Bill’s visit to Dr. Leoni, Bill has parasites. I’m neither able to attest to this claim, nor refute it. I am going to ask someone who should know these things, and will include this in my next message as well. Here is what I do know. Bill has taken a course of a medication called Vermectil, which is the brand name form of a generic drug called Revectina. Here is the page (in portuguese) if you’d like to know what it is and how it works. http://www.bulas.med.br/bula/6663/revectina.htm
I know that some of you are turned off by the medical stuff, just as some of you are turned off by not looking at it enough … everyone can do as they wish. I am under the suspicion that this medication would also have cleared out Bill’s intestinal tract of whatever might have been living in there – but that’s just my suspicion. I’ll get back to you on this.
As for the situation IN the house:
When I arrived here there were three guys staying in the downstairs part of the House. Bill, Jalves who was the C.S. nurse called in to assist Bill with his recovery, and Sidney. The day I landed Jalves returned to his own home, leaving, still three guys in this very small house. I’ve installed myself upstairs in an area that is open, but has a roof over it, and besides the mosquitoes have found it adequate to catch some shut eye. Sid is staying downstairs, with Bill, setting up an inflatable bed in the evening and packing it back up in the morning, generally making as small an object of himself as one is capable of. Even so, the space is certainly not able to support two people living in it simultaneously for any length of time. Sid is here out of his own necessity. As this is Bill’s home, who will decide what the living arrangements are is going to have to be Bill himself. End of story.
The House itself:
Well, frankly, and I’m telling you this just as I would say it to my father himself – the living conditions at 238 Tavares Bastos are far from what most people find adequate or tolerable (I’m right there… at the tolerable line.. it depends on whether there is running water or not). BUT – the all important fact is – Bill finds it adequate. The intermittency of running water is honestly of grave concern, and I’ll continue to push hard for that matter to be resolved in such a way that the problem goes away for good (this will be touched on again shortly). The relative state of the house otherwise – well, it is what I expect most people would consider “favelado”. That’s a rough thing to say, but it is as honest as I can be. For better or for worse, there is not much that can be done to the house without an injection of funds – and most importantly – Bill’s accordance. Which if you (or I) were to bring up re-plumbing the house, or re-wiring the house, or repairing the stairs to make them safer, or putting in proper windows and doors in the back of the house, or installing a full and proper kitchen, or a full bathroom, or.. and on… Bill would shoot you down. It is just not something he would consider a useful way to spend $$, as it functions well enough for him – and I’ll repeat this till everyone is sick of hearing it – it is Bill’s criteria that matters.
The case with CEDAE:
CEDAE is the water company. Currently the house neither has a plumbed connection to the city’s water supply, nor is there a meter installed anywhere. Apparently, the meter was removed about two years ago when the city came around and cut the water off (by removing the plumbing from the main to the meter), and the meter was not functioning properly for two years before that (water flowed, but the meter did not show any change in usage). Since then, Eitel has been supplying 238 Tavares Bastos with water directly from a garden hose slotted into the water box on this property. In the meantime, CEDAE has continued to bill Bill for water usage up until today. We are not sure how they are arriving at their meter readings – remember there is no meter, or plumbing from the house to the street – or that they even have been reading the right meter, or are just inventing the readings… or.. or … ? We have no idea. A lawyer has been engaged and will be assisting with untangling this mess. In the meantime CEDAE holds the householder accountable for almost six years of back water bills. We are not at the bottom of this case either – so all that I can do is offer notice of when the house is put on regular water services, if it is that this transpires while I am still in Brasil (I’ll be here till about the last week of October… not that long, really).
Communications:
Bill and I are exploring the various providers of land-line telephone service, and hope to strike a contract with a company within the next work week. Having a land-line in the house should make talking to Bill a much more reliable affair.
The Affairs of the House:
The house’s legal standing is being looked after with some assistance from the lawyer that is working with us. The property taxes are being paid up, and future payments will be made without need for Bill to intercede.
The first order of business is to put the title in Bill’s name. He has the bill of sale to the house, all clear there. The title needs to be registered in his name then the property’s title will be transferred to me via a “doacao com uso e fruto”. It means that the house will be donated to me, with a clause that allows for Bill’s perpetual use of the house. This is being done particularly because it circumvents the higher tax rates applied to the transference of the property via a sale or via inheritance. It also gives Bill legal standing to remain in the house and make of it as he wishes – i.e. it will remain Bill’s home in principle and practice.
Caring for Bill:
This final statement – that 238 Tavares Bastos remains my father’s home – is important to me in that what I believe is the right thing to do. OK – so I get a house after my father passes away. That’s the way it will be. But for the time being I think it is of paramount importance that Bill have a place to continue being BILL. To have a home that functions around him without depending on his attention to continue doing so. The water should run, the lights stay on, the phone have a dial-tone, and the taxes stay paid. It is important to me that Bill be allowed to live his life – as he wishes it. Period. Even if that means that I, or you, or anyone else not agree with how he is choosing to do it. That’s the way we treat competent adults, as sovereigns. We can all offer to help, we can all talk to the man, we can all give our opinions … and then we must all back off and ask Bill what he wants.
I will not support anyone who goes against my father’s wishes. Even if those are clearly not how “we” would do things. Historically Bill has not done things how “we would have done things”, that is how he has always chosen to live. Why should anyone find it reasonable to try and take that away from him now? Doing so by coercion or by overwhelming him is not a means to be used against anyone in any but the most dire circumstances (and then don’t expect them to love you for it afterwards… because it often does not work that way). Note – historically, there have been circumstances which have merited this recourse in the past…
I struggle to articulate this last point, partly because it is shaped like an absolute, and partly for what it implies, but here it is: I believe it is more important to my father to retain his dignity and sovereignty than it is to prolong his life by force. Doing everything (medically) possible to extend my father’s life would do the man as much harm as it might do him good. To treat the body and trod on the mind … is no way to support the whole being that is William Huber (or any of us).
I’d like to stress that the above paragraph is my own opinion and thought. You might confer with Bill yourself if you’d like to hear his views, or weigh in with your opinions, expressly.
A Living Will
My final bit of news – Bill will be preparing a living will, also called an Advanced Health Care Directive (tambem chamado “atestado vital”). The copy I have, in Portuguese, is rather long, so don’t hold your breath (unless you have an AHCD yourself) till you see it, but when it is finalized, if Bill does not object, we will email everyone who’s received this email now, a copy.
Thank you. Yes, YOU, for your time, attention, and loving care of my father.
Noah