Two months before he was hospitalized, Osvaldo Silva told his wife he wanted to learn to play piano. He always loved hearing it, especially the songs of Frank Sinatra and Osaldo’s fellow Brazilian countryman, Antônio Carlos Jobim and his iconic Brazilian anthem, “The Girl from Ipanema.”
In January, 85-year-old Osvaldo, who was weak from battling cancer that had spread throughout his body, tumbled down a flight of stairs and was paralyzed. Since then, Osvaldo’s wife Lucia Silva and daughter Flavia Beare have remained next to his hospital bed at Intermountain Medical Center, comforting him as best they can.