(单词翻译:单击)
It turns out that Adele loves making necklaces and has whole drawers of them. As, lately, does my mother.
原来阿黛尔（姨妈）喜欢做项链，她有整整一抽屉的项链。最近，母亲也酷爱做项链。
I have a picture of the two of them standing side by side that day. I cannot stop looking at it.
我有一张那天她俩肩并肩站在一起的照片。我忍不住一直盯着看。
Carmen Ayala, Adele’s extraordinary 79-year-old caretaker, has instructed Adele to say “Hello, Rona, I love you” to my mother, a gesture that’s both sweet and awkward—Adele doesn’t know my mother by sight, much less by name.
卡门·阿亚拉已经79岁高龄了，是阿黛尔的特别看护人，阿亚拉指示阿黛尔对我母亲说“你好，罗娜，我爱你”，这个表达既甜蜜又尴尬，因为阿黛尔连我母亲的脸都不认识，更不用说名字了。
Still, it catches my mother by surprise, not least because it suggests that her sister’s vocabulary has expanded considerably since we last saw her, when she was living in a different group home.
尽管如此，这还是让我母亲感到意外，尤其是因为这表明，自从我们上次见到她妹妹阿黛尔以来--她当时住在另一家收容所--她的词汇量已经大大增加了。
They embrace and take seats on the couch in the living room.
她们拥抱着坐在客厅的沙发上。
We try, for a time, to ask Adele basic questions about her day, without much success, though when we ask if she knows any Christmas carols—the holiday is coming up—she sings “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” for us, and my mother replies in kind with “Silent Night.”
我们试着问了会儿阿黛尔一些关于她的一天的基本问题，但没有取得太大的成功，尽管当我们问她是否会唱圣诞颂歌时——因为圣诞假期就要到了——她为我们唱了《圣诞老人即将进城》，我母亲回了阿黛尔一首《平安夜》。
Then Adele zones out, staring at her hands. She can spend hours staring at her hands.
之后，阿黛尔走神了，盯着自己的手。她可以一连几个小时盯着自己的手。
My mother and I start to ask Carmen and her youngest child, Evelyn—she lives nearby and knows well all three residents in her parents’ home—the customary questions: How did Carmen get into this line of work? What is Adele’s routine?
我和母亲开始问卡门和她最小的孩子伊芙琳(伊芙琳住在附近，对她父母家的三位住户都很熟)一些惯常的问题：卡门是怎么进入这一行的? 阿黛尔的日常生活是什么样的?
How did Adele handle the transition to Carmen’s house 22 years ago, after her previous caretaker retired?
在22年前阿黛尔的前任看护人退休后，阿黛尔是如何应对转移到卡门家的?
And although I’m interested in the answers, I find myself growing restless, thoughts of that Twitter thread plucking at my consciousness.
尽管我对这些问题的答案很感兴趣，但我发现自己越来越坐立不安，那些推特帖子上的想法拉扯着我的意识。
I finally blurt out: What is my aunt like?
我终于脱口而出：我姨妈是个什么样的人?
Evelyn replies first. “Very meticulous,” she says. “She needs things a certain way, and she will correct you the minute you do something wrong.”
伊芙琳先回答道：“非常细致，她需要事物按照特定方式运转，一旦你做错了什么，她就会纠正你。”
I stare at my mother, who says nothing. I turn back to Evelyn and Carmen and prompt them. Such as?
我盯着母亲，她什么也没说。我转向伊芙琳和卡门，提示她们，比如呢?
Her clothes have to match, they say, down to the underwear. She keeps her bed pin-neat.
她们说，她的衣服必须相配，甚至要与内衣相配。她把床收拾得整整齐齐。
“She knows where everything is at,” Evelyn continues. “If we”—meaning her or any of her family members—“come here and we are washing a dish and we put it in the wrong place, she will tell us, Nope.”
“她知道每样东西的位置，”伊芙琳继续说。“如果我们来到这里洗盘子，把盘子放在了错误的地方，她会告诉我们位置不对。” 这里的我们指的是伊芙琳或伊芙琳的家庭成员。
