My Family After Tragedy

Recently I have been assisting a very dear person to me. The name will remain anonymous, because it is not for me to disclose. But believe me, I would lay my life down if it were to come to that. These recent events have made me look deep inside; it is inevitable. I lost my wife to cancer: Glioblastoma Multiforme, or GBM for short. There is no cure for this affliction. I took care of her until her last breath. She faced her predicament with bravery and gallantry. She wanted to be in the "5%," the ones who beat the odds. But life does not work like that. I stopped working, and for 16 months we fought together for her life. When it was evident she was losing, she told me: "No hospice, no hospital." She died with no bedsores, a testament to her care. At the moment before she crossed, I asked my daughters to join me in a ritual. Our younger daughter played her clarinet, and our older daughter held her hand. We were telling her she was not alone. In my wife's will, t...

  To my daughters, I tried to be her, and I could not. I tried to be their buddy, and I could not. Then I understood: I am Dad. That is my role, my strength, and my gift. Now, it is recorded forever, here.

My wife passed away in June 2021. Before she did, she told me to write. Somehow, I believe that from the shadows she still urges me on. I work during the day, and with quiet anticipation wait for the moment I can slip back into the world I am creating. I have always enjoyed writing stories about my family—it mattered deeply to me—but the series that became The Anomaly has bewitched me in a different way. Perhaps it is because every character, every moment, feels layered with humanity. They move me. I can see them; I can meet them. When I began writing The Last Mission of K-88 Grom , I stepped outside. It was raining, six degrees Celsius, with a gentle wind sharp enough to make me shiver. For a moment, I wanted to be in their skin—to draw from my own humanity and carry it back into the story. To all the readers around the world who visit these pages, thank you. Here are the most popular posts. Postscript I hope  The Man Under the Uniform  and  The Last Mission of K-88 Gr...

My Turning Point The public hearings at the University of Havana during the so-called “Deepening Process” were some of the darkest days in our history. At the Faculty of Chemistry, classes stopped entirely; nothing was taught, nothing was learned. Attendance at the hearings was mandatory, and each day felt like walking into a tribunal rather than a university. Many students were expelled. Charlie was not the only one. I remember a young woman—I can’t recall her name—who was cast out simply for wearing a crucifix. It had been a gift from her godmother. When the commission demanded she take it off, she refused. The leader pointed at the door, and instantly a chorus began: “Out, out, out!” Her classmates followed her to the street, chanting in what was called a “repudiation act.” It was horrible to watch. These acts were not spontaneous. They were an intimidation tactic perfected by the government. They could—and sometimes did—turn violent. The year before, in 1980, lives had already be...

It was 1981, and I had barely survived my first year at the University of Havana, where I was studying chemistry. The leap from high school to university had been a huge adjustment—not just for me, but for many others. In the fall of 1979, about 250 of us began the program together. By the second year, fewer than 50 remained. That year we were introduced to a new subject: Philosophy. Every subject has to start somewhere, and we began with the classics—their ideas, their conflicts, their strengths and weaknesses. But one question weighed heavily on us: why study philosophy at all? Shouldn’t we be focused on chemistry—the nature of substances, their reactions, the concepts of atoms, molecules, and bonds? That was the very first challenge we posed to our philosophy lecturer, and to us, it seemed perfectly legitimate. The answer, fittingly, was philosophical. In the Soviet context, philosophy was meant to train us in analytical reasoning and critical thinking—by grappling with big questi...

 Can Glycosylated Antitumor Ether Lipid be used to treat GBM? ChatGPT said: Great question. Let's break it down clearly and carefully. Glycosylated Antitumor Ether Lipids (GAELs) are a class of synthetic lipid-based molecules designed to have anticancer properties. They are derivatives of antitumor ether lipids (AELs) , with added sugar moieties (glycosylation) to improve selectivity, solubility, and reduce toxicity. Use of GAELs in GBM (Glioblastoma Multiforme): 1. Research Evidence: Direct studies on GAELs and GBM are limited. There is preclinical evidence that antitumor ether lipids (especially compounds like edelfosine or miltefosine ) have activity against glioblastoma cells in vitro . Glycosylated variants of these compounds (GAELs) have shown antitumor activity in other cancers, such as leukemia, melanoma, and breast cancer, but direct clinical studies on GBM are sparse or non-existent as of now (2024). 2. Mechanism of Action: GAELs are thought to: D...