I grew up in an orphanage after losing my parents as a child. I worked hard at a foreign-owned company, invested in real estate, and built up my own assets. At 45, I took early retirement. Now I’m married to Hironari, my husband who’s 50, and we enjoy a quiet life in the suburbs. One day, my sister-in-law Yumi (42) asked me to check in on her husband Atsuki’s mother, Kagawa (79), who lives nearby. But when I saw her, I was shocked by how unstable she seemed. To make things worse, Yumi had given out my number everywhere as the emergency contact—without even telling me.
When I went to pick Kagawa up after she was caught riding the train without paying, she kept muttering, “I want to die already.” I felt terrified and sympathetic at the same time. But honestly, it became a burden. Because my sister-in-law and her husband shared my number around, complaints and calls all came directly to me, and Hironari wasn’t any help either.
Feeling at my limit, I contacted Yumi myself. She brushed it off, saying she had kids and couldn’t do it, and acted like helping was only natural since I was the stay-at-home relative living close by.