My husband made me promise I would never go into his father’s room. Two years later I finally broke that promise, and what I found on the old man’s body put me on my knees. 😨

From that day forward, everything changed in the Herrera household.

The door to Rafael’s room stayed open now, and Lucía spent hours each day sitting with him, talking to him, reading to him, keeping him company. She learned to interpret his eye movements and expressions, developing their own language of communication that allowed them to have real conversations despite his inability to speak.

She would tell him about her day, about the funny thing that had happened at the grocery store or the interesting news story she’d read. She’d ask his opinion on decisions she was making, and he’d blink his responses—one blink for yes, two for no, three for “I need to think about it.”She learned his routines, his preferences, his moods. She discovered that he liked his coffee with two sugars and a splash of cream, that he preferred the blinds at half-mast rather than fully open or fully closed, that he enjoyed old jazz music playing softly in the background while he rested.