Dec. 14--BROWNSVILLE -- When Antonio Ayala leaves for dialysis at 4:45 a.m., he must first brave a muddy driveway while struggling with his prosthetic leg.
"I have to go slow with him," said his daughter, Sylvia Hinojosa. "It takes five to eight minutes. After he stops he has to stay there and then he starts walking again."
Hinojosa said she and her father would like to get the driveway paved so that he won't have so much trouble getting from the house to the street. They already have a ramp from the front steps to the yard and that has helped immensely.
Getting to the kitchen from his bedroom requires the 66-year-old Ayala to ascend a steep step with the aid of his daughter or one of her two children, ages 15 and 18, who stay with him at night. They'd also like a ramp over that step.
"In 2003, he lost his right foot," Hinojosa said. "He got diabetes. They had to remove his right leg down the knee."
Up until that time, he worked as a shrimper for his brother's company, Ayala's Brother's Shrimp.
"I was a captain for my brother's company," he said. "I worked 38 years. We were working out 30 days at a time, couldn't see land, just water."
"Bad weather and everything, he'd be over there," added his daughter proudly.
"I was working over there, we never got sick and nothing," he said.
All that came to an abrupt and painful end when he developed diabetes and lost his foot. His health has worsened since then.
"I haven't seen too much since I had an operation on my eye," he said, referring to cataract surgery he had on his left eye on Dec. 3.
For several years, his loyal wife Elena looked after him. However, she died about six months ago. Workers were repairing damage inflicted on the house by Hurricane Dolly in October of last year when she stepped on a nail and contracted tetanus. The disease landed her in the hospital and she never left, Hinojosa said. The loss has been very hard on him. They used to spend their hours working with the plants in the yard.
"Everyday we were outside working with the plants," Ayala said. "Everyday we would be in the yard cleaning. We got very good grass outside. We got beautiful roses."
"Roses, she would like all that," Hinojosa added.
Since his beloved wife died, there's no one to look after the plants, Hinojosa said.
"He feels sad going outside to all that, what they used to do together," she said.
Last month, he had another surgery on his back.
"He had a little cyst, a small one, but it started growing a lot, like the size of a grapefruit," Hinojosa said. "We asked his doctor and his doctor told us that he had to get surgery because instead of going outside it was going inside. He got it removed already."
All the medical problems have sent the man into a deep depression.
"He's been telling me, yesterday, he told me that it's getting worse that he can't see nothing no more, that he's been feeling sick, like he won't probably make it too much more," she said. "I tell him, 'Hey, don't say that. I mean you have to be positive and everything."
The family would also like help clearing the mold out of the bathroom, which has no ventilation, and Ayala sometimes complains he can't breathe well while showering.
"He might need to install an air vent, and there's also some electrical work needed," Hinojosa said. "We're afraid of an electrical malfunction causing a fire."
The main hallway also has a crack in the floor that needs repair because it sticks up and he sometimes trips. He's fallen once.
The only real present he would like, he said as a grin broke across his face, is a new Walkman cassette player to listen to his favorite performers: Ramon Ayala and Beto Quintanilla.
Another daughter, Adelaida Resendez, said she would appreciate someone constructing a small gazebo in the backyard so he could relax and enjoy the view outside.
"He always has us around to keep him company," she said. "We try to keep his spirits happy and alive to continue going forward with life. So I believe that this Christmas he is very much deserving of something nice."
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