Lara

Lara’s parents moved to the U.S. right after they were married, and Lara and her sister were born in the States. Her extended family is pretty big—about half live here in the U.S., but the rest still live back home. Her mom’s older brother lives in the U.S. and is a favorite uncle to everyone. He is really more like the “dad” in the family, since he is the oldest and since Lara’s grandfather died long ago. Lara’s mom is really, really close to her brother and treats him with the respect she would her own father. They all live about two miles apart and see each other all the time.

About 6 months ago, Lara noticed that her uncle would drop things and sounded strange when he talked, like he had something in his throat. She asked her mom, who said it was nothing, but Lara knew something was wrong. Her mom would cry all the time, shut herself in her room, and was always on the phone with family. They would go visit her uncle and everyone was sad. He was getting worse physically, but was still his funny self. Lara and her sister did not know what was going on, and no one was telling them anything. They were both angry and sad and felt like they were being treated like little kids.