Sunday, May 27, 2018 7:13 AM

At the House of a Hundred Grandmothers, a worker asks a resident for help with her Hebrew. She knows enough to do her job, but, as a woman caring for women, has only learned the feminine forms of verbs. She wants to know the masculine forms, too, for speaking to and about men. Her family is back in the Philippines. Her work here supports them. Many of the Christian ones gather for worship once a week, at a time when most of the Grandmothers can get along briefly without them. The rest of the time, when I see them, they are gathered near clusters of Grandmothers, keeping an eye on them, or sitting or walking with them, with seemingly infinite patience.