Dennis Rodrigues

Esther (Graded class of '74) and I each moved to the U.S. after graduation, a year apart, and arranged our college choices so that we would be together. I attended Central Missouri State University, with Esther, for my freshman year, Western Washington University, with Esther, for my sophomore year and the University of Washington in Seattle for my junior and senior years. I took a break from college when we married in 1977 and supported us while Esther finished college in 1978. We lived in Montana in 1978-79 where Esther began her teaching career, before returning to Seattle where I finished college and joined the Audit/Tax/Consulting firm Peat, Marwick, Mitchell's (now KPMG) Seattle's office. In 1983 the Firm transferred me, at our request, to the Sao Paulo office. We moved to SP with our then 11 month old son Daniel.

Our other 3 kids were all born in Sao Paulo, where we lived for the next 15 years, in Alto da Boa Vista and Interlagos. We returned to the US in 1998, to work at KPMG's Miami office and provide a better education for our youngest child, Jack, who is hearing impaired.

I 'retired' (at age 52, after 29 years tenure at KPMG) in 2009 and then became the Business Manager at Coral Gables Congregational Church, which we've attended since moving to Miami. If links work, here is the link to our Church's website. There is a staff page with my photo (taken 14 years ago!) on the site somewhere. http://www.gablesucc.org

We are also one of the original founding families of Sunrise School of Miami, a Waldorf curriculum Pre-K 4 to 8th grade private non-profit school which opened in 2005. Our son Jack completed Middle School at Sunrise and then finished High School at the Florida Institute for the Deaf and Blind in St. Augustine, FL. Esther taught at Sunrise from 2015-21 and is now one of the administrators. I've Chaired the Board since 2013.

Our four children have all had kids, with a current 14 grandkid tally.

Our eldest, Daniel is married to Liz and lives in Grinnell, Iowa. Liz works at Grinnell College as a research librarian. Daniel is a CPA, working at a Grinnell accounting firm. Daniel and Liz are the parents of grandsons Mateo, Emil and Joachim.

Our second, Thomas, lives in Miami with his wife Nikki. Nikki is a partner in a small family law practice. Thomas is an urban planning consultant at a global engineering firm. Tom and Nikki are parents of our grandkids Luca and Elise. Luca attends a public elementary school in Miami which teaches half of the subjects in Portuguese.

Our third, Amaya, lives in western Massachussetts and is the mother of our three oldest grandkids Nathaniel (born 2007), Gabriel (2010) and Maleah (2013). Amaya's partner, Patrick, has custody of his three children, Mimi, Prezdin and Pryce, so Amaya is effectively the mother of six and we count all six in the 14 grandkid tally.

Our youngest, Jack, lives in Chicago with his present spouse, Brandie. Jack's three children, Anthony, Stella and Mia live in Ohio.

We live in Miami and love the warm weather, cosmopolitan flavor and profusion of Spanish and Portuguese speakers. We built a home in 2016 that is walking distance to the University of Miami. We designed the home to age in place, with no steps, 3 foot wide doors throughout and highly hurricane resistant features, on an oak-shaded lot in a most hospitable neighborhood 15 minutes from Miami International airport.

We have a spacious, welcoming guest suite and welcome our Graded alum friends to come stay with us.

I attended a Brazilian elementary school, then transferred for the equivalent of 5th grade to St. Paul's School, which I attended for the next 6 years. I transferred to Graded for 11th and 12th Grades.

Esther and I rode the school bus from Alto da Boa Vista to Graded every morning. In fact, coincidentally (or did Esther's friendly smile help?) I sat in the same seat that my sister Karen Sylvia Rodrigues Abreu sat in the prior school year, also next to Esther.

Esther and I lived three blocks apart in Alto da Boa Vista. During the Christmas break of 1973, we rode our bikes all over the neighborhood, once to Roberta Sturz's home in Jardim Marajoara. Another time we rode from Alto da Boa Vista to Wendy Levy's home in Interlagos. That ride was on February 1, 1974, a Friday, the day of the horrific Joelma office tower fire in downtown Sao Paulo. We saw news coverage of the fire on the TV at Wendy's home. The Joelma was across the street from my own father's office. That was a terrible tragedy with over 100 fatalities.

We began dating the following Monday, February 4, 1974, which was the first day of the second school semester. During that Monday at school we hung around each other, twirling around the painted steel columns in the hallways and feeling totally giddy. Something had in fact changed over the vacation that we had not realized before returning to school. We stopped at Esther's home after school. After what felt like the most intense dialogue in my life, I picked up Esther's hand to illustrate a point in the conversation. The electricity was amazing. I decided to keep holding on to her hand and we have never let it go.

On February 4, 2024 we'll celebrate 50 years since that occasion. No travel or other plans as we're still both too busy with our respective work and volunteer responsibilities.

One of the greatest supporters of our romance was Dna Talita (dos Santos) Bemvindo, Graded's High School Brazilian Literature teacher. Another enabler was Sr. Belletti, who taught Brazilian Social Studies and genially tolerated my skipping his last-period class to sit instead next to Esther in Dna Talita's Brazilian Literature class.

I became such a regular in Dna. Talita's class that I was invited to join the Literatura students on the annual trip to Sao Joao del Rey and Ouro Preto. An amazing week, perfect for a young couple in love. Below, for those who enjoy reading Portuguese, is the account of this experience that I shared with Deisi Orni Blankfeld on Facebook:

A melhor parte eram as classes de literatura brasileira da Dna Talita. Não fiz gramática com ela, já havia feito no St. Paul's.

Eu freqüentei as aulas de literatura durante um ano e meio. Eu cabulava as aulas do Sr. Beletti (com anuência dele) no segundo semestre do meu junior year e ia prá classe da Dna. Talita pra ficar juntinho da Esther.

Em função disso, a Dna. Talita me convidou pra ir junto com a classe de literatura pra Sao Joao del Rei e Ouro Preto. Uma de minhas memórias mais gostosas foi estudar a poesia da Cecília Meirelles, contando a historia da Inconfidência, in loco. Uma semana viajando com a turma toda e especialmente, com a Esther, foi inacreditavelmente fabuloso.

Eu acho que muito da simpatia da Talita conosco foi o fato dela ter casado relativamente recentemente, e mudou o sobrenome de Santos para Bemvindo. Ela tinha fama de muito brava antes de casar. Depois virou um doce.

Nós dois (Deisi e eu) fizemos a classe de literatura no meu senior year o seu junior year, mas como já havia ouvido os seminários de vários dos livros que estudamos, no ano anterior de cabulação crônica, foi mais fácil pra mim.

A Talita figura como grande promotora de nosso namoro que virou casamento.