I grew up without parents — they passed away when I was very young — and I was raised in an orphanage. I threw myself into studying, earned scholarships, graduated from a university in Japan and then a graduate school overseas, and eventually joined a foreign-owned company. After building assets through real-estate investments, I retired early at 45. Now I’m married to my husband Hironari (50), whom I met after retirement, and we live quietly in the suburbs. But recently I learned that Hironari’s sister Yumi’s mother-in-law, Kagawa (79), lives nearby — and Yumi asked me to “check in on her sometimes.”
Kagawa lives in an apartment that looks practically abandoned. When I visited, the place was a disaster — and she screamed at me until I ran out.
Shaken, I told Hironari I couldn’t take care of her, but then I found out he had already promised his mother and Yumi that I’d help out “to some extent.” And starting the very next day, I began getting call after call — complaints, problems, everything about Kagawa. It seems Yumi and her husband had given everyone my phone number.