Martin Espinoza. Press Democrat

In better days, George Peinado skillfully wielded a paring knife, mixing spoon and frying pan in such places as the Beverly Hills Hotel and the Original Pantry Cafe in Los Angeles. A proud first-generation American who grew up in a working-class Mexican family in South Pasadena, Peinado, 70, now lives in a mobile home just north of Graton — with Parkinson’s disease and a caregiver. Sitting in a wheelchair, Peinado clumsily wipes saliva from the corner of his mouth as he bitterly describes the things he can and cannot do. “My hands don’t work,” he said. “I can brush my teeth but not shave. I can use a fork but not a knife.” There are other things he cannot do, things he describes with frustration and, inevitably, with a string of expletives
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