By Anne Marshall-Chalmers, Photo: Katie Rodriguez/UC Berkeley Investigative Reporting Program, San Francisco Chronicle, September 24, 2022
Seven months ago, Betty Gray could climb the 11 inside steps leading to her Berkeley apartment, though it would take her about 15 minutes. In her 70s and suffering from chronic pain and congenital arthritis, she’d park her wheelchair at the bottom of the stairs and then scoot backward up each step. At the top, she’d pause before grasping the rail “for dear life” as she pulled herself to her feet.
But one day in February, Gray’s legs quivered like Jell-O as she stood at the top of the stairs. She remembers stumbling backward, rolling down all 11 steps and the sound of her head smacking the concrete floor at the bottom. Paramedics arrived, but Gray refused a ride to the hospital — she didn’t want to have to face those stairs once she was discharged. They helped her into her apartment and that’s where she remained.
Gray spent her days in a cushioned chair by the front door, watching old Westerns while stringing beads for bracelets or creating decoupage prayer boxes. Her fall resulted in nerve damage to her hands and feet, and she developed an intense fear of the 11 steps that separated her from the rest of the world.
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