The Checklist

When I was a kid, while my mom worked in downtown Buenos Aires, my grandmother Herta would greet me every day at her appartment in the 8th floor above Vicente López after school (back in those days I only had classes in the mornings) and prepare my lunch; she would then go for a nap or to watch some telenovela, while I did my homework in the dining room table. That all changed after her passing in April 1985. All of a sudden I’d come back to an empty home, and would have to learn to heat some leftovers or even sometimes cook something for myself from scratch. Until one day I realized in the middle of my class day that I had forgotten my home keys, and hence there was no way to enter home. I panicked, as the 11 year old I was still, and asked to call my mom at work to let her know. She called a friend of ours, and I ended up having lunch at the home of Graciela and “Neno” Grosso, the parents of my school friend Leonardo and his older sister Silvina (if you guys are reading this, hi!)…