2. Lost my husband at 36

 I was only 36 when my husband passed away

In September, 2002, my husband passed away. He had been hospitalized for about 5 months but didn't recover to the end. He was only 42, too young to die. He and I had four children, two boys and two girls. They were 13, 11, 7, and 5.
At that time I was only 36. Like most of the women in the same generation may have been so, I never imagined that I myself became widowed at such a young age.

I literally thought that anything could happen to our life.

What would you do if you were in such a situation?

So, what would you do if you were in the same situation? You lost your husband, have four kids, you are working but don't get paid enough because the breadwinner was your husband. Of course you will get a certain amount of money after processing tons of documents as you are entitled to inherit your husband's property, but it would be all used up in years if you want to have your children educated well or even with a standard level.

According to the national statistics in 2015, the average income of single mother in Japan is 243 million yen, which is $22,670. My wage was slightly more but given that the average number of children is two my income can be said much lower.

So, what am I going to do? Now I had a big bank account. It was like 30 million yen which was totally beyond my imagination. Then I had an inspiring thought. What if I use this money for studying abroad? 

Actually this idea was originally coming from one of my mom friends.