No one expected Uncle Ray to pass so suddenly, least of all Mara, whom he’d raised after her parents vanished. With no money and her flower shop failing, Mara made a desperate choice: the day after Ray died, she dressed him, put on his sunglasses, and wheeled him to the bank to withdraw his last social security check—just enough to keep the lights on. The teller didn’t question it. But someone in line did. The story went viral as a dark joke, and Mara was arrested for fraud. What people missed was the truth: she wasn’t stealing from a stranger—she was clinging to the only family she had left.
