A little more comfort.

I don't know if you can see her very well because she's so tiny, but this is Doña Carmen. Her precious little frame is very fragile and she falls often, frequently voicing some of the aches and pains of old age (she's 97). On the right is her sister-in-law Doña Teresa, who takes care of her on a daily basis.

Doña Carmen is usually asleep in her single-size bed, with her radio turned up to a ridiculous volume because she's hard of hearing. When we visit her, there's always a surprise of some sort, whether it's singing us a song in English or entertaining us with her stories of when she was young . She is such a joy to visit.

On this particular day, we were delivering a gift from one of the team members to her - a new mattress and soft sheets. She was ecstatic about the color and the material and called herself "Reina Carmen" or "Queen Carmen." When we arrived at the house, it was a quite a time. We woke the poor soul up and got her out of bed; then we had to cut the mattress down to size for it to fit. When we changed the mattress out we found her machete which we made sure to put back under the mattress for protection. Just imagining Doña Carmen wielding a huge knife at an intruder is hilarious since she's about 4'6".

I hope that her new mattress will be a small source of comfort for her since that is where she spends her day. She is one of the people in Los Anonos who I will dearly miss.