This is a necessary sequel to my July 2020 post, Paciência.

Since returning home from our sailing trip, my husband, David, in his own quiet way, has continued to try to learn Portuguese; enrolling in Practice Portuguese, a language learning site out of Lisbon, doing their exercises religiously, practicing speaking Portuguese weekly to a couple of people online, keeping a daily journal in Portuguese, reading Portuguese news, watching Portuguese TV, and even cooking from Portuguese recipe books.

Well, here we are sixteen years later and it seems that his paciência — and his shocking persistence — have paid off.

This spring, at 70 years of age, David went by train to the Portuguese Consulate in Toronto and, along with several 20-something-year-olds, took the country’s official CIPLE exam that evaluates all aspects of language proficiency (oral and written comprehension, writing skills and the ability to converse).

And he passed! I couldn’t be prouder!