It is my deep sorrow to inform you that our colleague and friend here on the site, and my good friend in Real Life, Texanbrazil, passed away this morning after a long illness.
Tex joined Expat in February of 2018, and enjoyed helping people. He was gratified when he received the designation and badge of a Brazil Advisor. That was a red-letter day for him, but he never thought of waiting for an official title to lend a hand. Reviewing his over 2700 posts, it becomes clear that he knew Brazil, understood it, and loved it, and wanted to help others understand and love it, too.
Tex was an Old Brazil Hand. Of course, that means that he’d spent years in Brazil and knew the people and the culture, but it’s more than that. He loved Brazil warts and all, and never let sentimentality blind him to its shortcomings, or the shortcomings mar his love or his hopes for the country’s future improvement. Like any Old Brazil Hand who hasn’t given up, he’d already seen plenty of improvement. He saw plenty more that was needed, and never lost confidence or hope.
He first came to Brazil with the oil industry. He left when he decided that local partners were asking him to do things that conflicted with his conscience and with US law – and Brazilian law, for that matter. He returned as things improved, and he helped them to improve. He fell in love, got married, decided to retire here. He learned to navigate the obstacle course that any expat with Brazilian in-laws and extended family needs to master to survive. He never mastered Portuguese to his own satisfaction, but that never kept him from communicating. He got Brazil.
We met online around the time he joined Expat, and soon we were chatting most days: about strange questions and how to answer them, about how to bring Brazilian bureaucrats to accept a win/win, about which were the best dry rubs for barbecue, about how many beers it’s safe to drink while barbecuing before you burn the brisket (we approached the limit on that one, but never quite reached it), about anything, in fact. Every couple of weeks, I’d find an email from him full of funny cartoons for a few laughs.
When my husband and I visited Iguaçu Falls in January of 2020, we stayed in an AirB&B that Tex recommended and hung out evenings with him and his wife. Those are some of the best memories of the trip, and the four of us have stayed in constant contact. We also met their fearless Lhasa Apso watchdog, whose official name is Alex, but Tex, of course, immediately nicknamed “Cujo”.
Cujo was at his side until the end, providing comfort in his lucid moments. Now it’s the rest of us who need comfort; he’s moved beyond all that. Well done, Buddy, well done. Don’t worry about a thing. You ride on, we’ll take it from here.
If anyone wishes to leave condolences or reminiscences below, I’ll make sure that his wife sees them.