Many years ago I worked with a Mexican gentleman at a restaurant; he was a dishwasher and I was a waitress. He didn’t speak English and I didn’t speak Spanish but we still found ways to communicate and laugh. We had these little rhyming nonsensical sing-song ditties; hola hola Coca Cola, pajarito sin cola, nada nada limonada. He had such a great demeanor for someone doing dishes all day. Marcos was such a likable guy.

Anyway, after a busy day and a continuous load of dirty dishes to the kitchen I decided to teach my friend a new word: relentless. We practiced it everyday until it would just roll off his tongue.

The inside joke for me was that someday in the future as Marcos learned more English, he might have a conversation where he confidently used the word relentless and catch someone off guard with his command of the word.

The last time I saw Marcos was when we ran into each other at a grocery store maybe six or seven years ago. Just a happy, chance meeting. As I think of this I remember his eyes; he had smiling eyes. Yes, relentlessly smiling eyes.

Sorry, I have no photo of Marcos.