After Grandma Evelyn’s death, I thought packing everything in her house would be the hardest thing to lose. But when I stood in front of the basement door that she had kept closed all my life and realized that I would have to go down, I never imagined that I would discover a secret that would change my life.

Life continued to advance.

I went to college, came back most weekends to recharge my emotional batteries and finally met Noah.

When “staying to sleep” became “moving” to his little house on the other side of town, there was all the excitement of adulthood: buying food, choosing paint samples, building a future.

Grandma Evelyn was so stable then, even when she slowed down, but that was gradually changing to worse