There is a real window and it favors acting today: Google holds deleted accounts in a recoverable state for a period of roughly two to three weeks, and inside it the recovery restores everything, mail, contacts and the address itself.

The recovery runs through Google's standard account recovery at accounts.google.com/signin/recovery, entering the deleted address. Inside the window the flow acknowledges the deletion and offers restoration after identity verification, the old password, a recovery phone or email code, whichever proofs the account had. The stronger the proofs available, the smoother it goes, so do this with the family member present holding their phone. Success signs them straight back into the intact account.

Past the window the honesty is stark: the data purges and the recovery flow reports the account cannot be restored, no support ticket or payment changing it. The address itself additionally never returns to circulation, Google does not reissue deleted Gmail addresses to anyone, which at least prevents impersonation but also means the address is gone as an identity. Anything downstream of it, sign ins on other services using that address, needs migrating to a new address through each service's own email change process, the tedious aftermath worth starting promptly.

The prevention worth stating for everyone reading later: Google Takeout exports the whole account to files on demand, and one Takeout before any dramatic account decision converts irreversible into merely annoying. For the recovered account, if today goes well, running that Takeout this evening would be the appropriate lesson made concrete.