Family Ties (2000)

Author Manoel Carlos likes to write family dramas and only dramas. This one tells the story of Helena, a 50something single mother of young adults Camila and Fred, trying to live alone. Everybody spontaneously loves her, from neighbors to strangers, but her life is not as easy as she would like. She has problems with her daughter-in-law, her half-sister Iris, and her old father, whom she abandoned for good 20 years ago. In a courageous move, she gets a boyfriend, young doctor Edu, the same age as Camila. It is no surprise when Edu and Camila fall in love with each other, and Helena gets vulnerable to new lovers her own age, rude farmer Pedro and romantic bookseller Miguel. Then Camila develops leukemia, and there is only one way to save her: a transplant from one of her close relatives. But none of them are compatible. Now Helena must do whatever she can to save Camila, in spite of her daughter's lack of character.