Mom told me she agreed because Gabriel was her son-in-law and she was a guest in his home and because the word project sounded temporary.
He carried the air mattress downstairs. He inflated it. He gave her one blanket and one pillow. He moved her medications to an overturned bucket because there was no furniture in the basement and he did not bring the nightstand down.
He told her he would bring meals.
On the first evening, he brought a plate of pasta and a glass of water and set them on the top step. He did not come down. Mom climbed the stairs to retrieve the plate. The stairs were steep. She held the railing with one hand and the plate with the other and she descended slowly because her body, which was being systematically weakened by a treatment designed to save it, could not manage speed.
She ate on the air mattress. She set the plate on the floor beside the bucket.
