"It's not something I like to think about," Tina confesses. "I'm lucky to have come from a loving family, though. To know that they would miss me, if it came to that."

And there's that ache in Tina's chest- sharper than it has been in a while. That yearning to just be where she truly belongs, and the regret that the longer she spends here, the more difficult it is to have sharp, clear images of her beloved family, due to the distance between them.

"I can only imagine," Tina says. "And I'm glad she had an outlet for that, since she didn't have my siblings to chase after. I feel like I want to have kids of my own some day, just because she's set such a good example for me."