Whose child is this?

Magda was waiting in Room #2 with twin girls who seemed too young to be her own, only 18 months old, and she is 47, here to be seen for diabetes. It turned out to be about much more than her diabetes of course, it was also about the strange pains that went up and down her spine which made her worry about her kidneys. After all, she knew that diabetes could cause renal failure...and she had already had one kidney removed 10 years ago. And it was about the pain in her neck, and the swelling in the left side of her neck and the weakness left over from the strange viral illness that left her paralyzed for a time, known as Guillan Barre syndrome. Soon her husband arrived and I showed him how to massage the aching muscles in her back, since with no transportation, she would surely not get to a physical therapist. As the visit came to an end, I asked Magda, are these your children? No they are his, as she pointed with her eyes to her husband. The pleasant, smiling man, with an accent from central Mexico seemed proud of the two children born from an outside relationship, now taken in by his wife, who looked at him with resignation and acceptance.