Hanging in there

One of the few houses still surviving in vertical Copacabana - and it even looks cared for and lived in.

A funny day, with an interesting twist at the end. Alas, I was slow on the uptake and missed the shots that could have illustrated it better, such as the moving guys trying to transport a queen-sized mattress on a skate board, and the visitors who dropped by later.
 
The mattress belonged to a bed I bought, rather against HH’s will and my better judgement. We’re long on beds at the moment, but it was offered at an very good price on the Gringos Buy & Sell site and I have long felt our visitors deserve a larger bed. Naturally, the skate board effort didn’t work - the latex was too floppy and the men wound up carrying it the block and a half to our house on their heads, then going back for the base (they must have been wondering why they hadn’t used the van). Anyway, they were a cheerful bunch and offered to carry it up three floors to the attic and set it up for us, for which we rewarded them (and ourselves) with some beer.
 
Shortly after they left, HH spotted someone peering through the sitting room window. It was the son of the former owners, and his partner. They accepted our invitation to come in, but wouldn’t stay long and refused an invitation to look around upstairs, but we swapped stories of the before and after. He was overcome with emotion – his parents had to sell the house to pay off debts they had guaranteed for relations, so a very traumatic experience for the whole family. Strange that we’re in almost the same situation now, 44 years on. Maybe a wicked witch has put a curse on this house, which has such a homely friendly feel and captivated us the first moment we set foot in it. Anyway, I was worried André would be upset by the changes we’d made to his family home, but he loved it. However, he and his sisters have all fallen on hard times – all drug-related, I believe – and he now lives in a favela. So very sad, as was the news he gave of his parents, both of whom died in straightened circumstances. We remember them very fondly, they were incredibly good to us when we bought the house, waiting, in spite of their difficulties, while we got a loan and even financing the down payment.
 
André also told us more about his parents and some of their distinguished visitors, such as Juscelino Kubitschek (see here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juscelino_Kubitschek), the President whose legacy includes the building of Brasília, and other leading Brazilian politicians and artists. We had no idea about all this and I’d love to hear more about it sometime. Very sad to think that such a generous and sociable couple as his parents should have met such a sorry end, and that their children should be in such disarray.