June 11, 2026- While Hana napped, this morning, I called my second brother, on the occasion of his birthday, He has lived an extraordinary life, learning skills needed to navigate daily life, whilst legally, then virtually blind. He worked as head of Kayem Meats’ financial division, until his retirement a few years ago. He took part in Sail Blind, in the 2010s, and I had the honour of sitting in an observation boat, for one of their sails, off Newport, RI, in 2013. His sons are doing well in life, and his grandchildren are navigating life’s challenges to the best of their abilities. I have seen him as a role model, more than once, in my own checkered career.

Hana continues to show signs of which direction she may follow, in the years ahead. She is into neatness, wiping her mouth with a bib or cloth after every other bite. She is also working on self reliance-holding her own spoon and steadying her bottle with both hands-though I continue to “assist” in guiding both.. She likes to hold books and studies each page carefully, for several minutes. She does not want me to flip the pages too quickly.

While she was napping, this afternoon, she seemed to have had a nightmare, shrieking several times. I was able to calmly talk to her and held her to convey that everything was alright, and that it was just a bad dream. It took a while, maybe seven or eight minutes, before she finally stopped whimpering. It’s always hard to know what a pre-lingual person dreams about, but whatever it was must have been a doozy. I’m just glad to be here for her, in happy moments and in scary ones.