The house went cold.

Not immediately, and not all at once, but in the way a house cools after the furnace goes out — you don’t notice on the first day.

He hired help.

Then he hired more help, because the first help left.

There was a nanny from an agency who lasted four months and quit by email.

There was a live-in couple who were competent and clinical and treated the girls like an assignment.

There was a woman named Denise who was actually wonderful with Gemma and who left after nine months to move to Oregon with her fiancé, and Lorelai did not speak for two days after Denise’s car pulled out of the drive.