In the book city of the beasts by isabel allende, how does the sickness of alex's mom impact him and his family?

Sadly theres a point in the text where they state that his mother was curntley suffering from cancer . Then he options was his dad . But hes dad had to take her to the hospital which was located in texas ..Which is like the center that focuses on cancer . So that left alex alone his sisters had whent to live with there grandmother but he was simply isolated with kate . Hints the reason like I stated above where he has to live with the lady .
But more the less he arrives in New York . Waits impatiently for his grandmother to show . She never arrived not even attempted While waiting in the air port .he met this chick who went by the named Morgana. Not one of the best influential people there is . Because she happens to smoke . Not just any thing but weed. One thing she did was give out this weird signal which was like a mean, tough, lonely girl impression kind of depressing . After his wait she had suggested to take alex to his grandmothers house since she wasn’t showing up 

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