As much as he’d rather be anywhere else, Birdie’s look of panic made his answer easy. He pulled up a stool and sat beside her bed, reaching down to hold her hand.

“I’m not going anywhere, Ma. I’ll be with you the whole time.”

Dr. Haas said the procedure would take about five minutes, which was plenty of time to say a bit of the rosary. Patrick grabbed the olive-wood rosary draped over the bedpost and laid it across his mother’s hands. One of the research assistants took his position at her shoulders, and the other at her knees. They were holding her in place, because this was going to be bad.

“Are you ready, Ma?”

She squeezed his hand and dipped her chin. It was all the permission Patrick needed. He looked at Dr. Haas and nodded.

Thank heavens for the strong men. They held Birdie braced against the mattress, but she screamed when Dr. Haas inserted the needle, and the keening wail cut straight to Patrick’s heart. He started praying over the scream, hoping his voice might cut through her pain and give her something to focus on. He pressed the rosary into her hand.

“Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee,” he said. “Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”

His mother’s garbled amen almost made him weep at her effort. He moved her fingers to the next bead on the rosary and recited the prayer again. Birdie still whimpered in pain but did her best to stumble through the prayer with him. Now that the needle was in, Dr. Haas was slowly injecting the serum.

“You’re doing well, Mrs. O’Neill,” the doctor said.

His words didn’t make a dent on his mother’s stricken face, so Patrick kept praying the rosary. After ten Hail Marys, they recited the Lord’s Prayer, then began the next round of Hail Marys.

“Halfway through,” Dr. Haas said, and Patrick continued reciting the rosary. They got nowhere close to completing the next decade of the rosary before Dr. Haas mercifully declared the infusion complete.

“All over,” the doctor said. Birdie let out another wail as he withdrew the needle. Then he cleaned the injection site and applied pressure.

Was this going to work? It was in the Lord’s hands now, and Patrick could only pray his mother’s misery would be worth it.

They hadn’t reached the end of the rosary, but Patrick needed to hear the final words, and Birdie did too. He moved her fingers to the crucifix dangling at the end of the rosary.

“Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.”