Once I'd laid out every detail for the person on the other end, I picked up my luggage and headed home.
On the high-speed train, I saw that Lucia had posted on social media.
A selfie at a beauty salon, captioned:
*My beautiful retirement starts today*
I quietly tapped "like."
Oh yes.
Your beautiful retirement was indeed just getting started.
A few hours later, I was back in my hometown.
I'd barely walked through the door when Virginia called, crying and frantic:
"Mom, where are you? Everything's falling apart over here!"
