She said, “When?”

I said the second.

And she said: “I knew he was ill.

I didn’t know he was that far along.

He never — ” and then she stopped and did not finish it.

And I said the sentence that took the floor out from under me for the second time in a week.

I said: “How did you know him?”

And Teresa Aguinaldo looked at me for a long moment and said: