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From my diary:
 Today
I was speaking with Jose Coimbra, an old boyhood friend from the days
when I lived in Correntina, Bahia Brazil in the early 1960s. I asked
Jose about occurrences in Correntina and the health and well being of
folks there. He indicated first of all that his Mom Dona Maria
celebrated her 91st Birthday on May 4th. That was the good news, the bad
news was that Pedro Guerra passed away late last year in 2008. Pedro was
103 years old. Pedro was the Prefeito of Correntina (Mayor of City and
also Head of County Commissioner as they are one and the same in
Brazil).
I last visited with Pedro in July of 2007. At the time he was as active
as ever digesting the newspaper in detail and discussing it, playing
backgammon, going out for strolls, etc. He seemed to have the vibrancy
of a 50 year old! I guess his old ticker just stopped one day. Tells me
that Correntina may be a good place to live and retire. Clean air and
water, a slow pace of life with little stress, lot of good vegetable and
fruit to eat, what more is there to life.
Pedro was a grand guy and a
great supporter of my efforts and work there. The success that we
enjoyed there was attributable to the vision of three men in the
community Pedro, Elias França (Mayor who succeeded him) and of course
the priest Padre André.
Pedro was a Pharmacist and
once or twice a year or so had a doctor come to his store and perform
operations on a table in the back. If someone came to us to mend an
injury (they thought Americans could do anything), and we could not help
them out we sent them day or night to Pedro. There was a doctor in the
town but he could no longer stand the sight of blood so was of no use in
many of the cases especially when cowboys drank too much whiskey and
decided to go at it with their machetes. Pedro had a great sense of
humor and usually a story or two about each of these cases also.
The Coimbra and the Guerra
families were like family to me. I spent lots of time in their homes and
it made my two years there very pleasurable. Without them it would have
been a long journey. I will miss Pedro but wish him peace and happiness
in Heaven which I know he firmly believed in as a life as good as the
one he had in this life in Correntina. He was a lucky man.
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