For a moment, she was startled by the simplicity of the question. She laughed and shook her head and said,

"It's not that simple, dear. After all, my son has his work, and his children have their friends and their schools. What sort of mother or grandmother would I be, if I asked them to give up their lives for me -- when really, it ought to be the other way around?"

She said this with a bit of iron firmness to her, a strong light shining in her brown eyes; this was something not only that she believed, but considered something of a point of pride to believe.