I’m immensely thankful mama had the chance to have this sweet young man! Before mama passed, our family had told staff and docs over and over how we wanted Akiva Ortiz caring for mama more! I wish he was caring for her when she passed. My first talk with him was when he collaborated with us on what mama likes to do and what she would prefer while she was in the hospital. He had written on the board in the room that she likes “smooth jazz, SWAT, and playing solitaire” so that everyone would know. Also, he would write any of the concerns we had mentioned to him or things we were worried about so that he could tell it to everyone. Akiva would, without us having to ask, explain how our mama was doing. If any family member had a question that was there, he kept it at 100. Any question would be met with compassion and answered without lying or acting like the questions were bothersome. He would say things clearly and in a nice way. He even wrote out short explanations about what was happening with mama on a piece of paper to help everyone understand all that was going on. He would tell us things like “have you been told about mama’s x-ray, do you know what’s new with mama, or have you talked with so and so." It was never assumed that we knew what was going on and he would fill us in and keep everyone involved. I remember him saying that he always wanted to keep everyone in the loop in case the worst were to happen. The worst did happen and mama died shortly after. If anything scary happened, he would explain what had happened to us and what people were doing for mama once things calmed down. Even before docs would say something to us, he would take us through what was wrong with mama in case what doctors would say didn’t make sense. A thing he would do that nobody else did was ask if we needed soda, crackers and covers to keep us comfortable. He once said how people could get recognized, and I wanted to do something nice for him since he took so good care of mama! Tell him to be more confident as he’s a good one!