She had never travelled without her husband. He died in 2019, and in 2022 she booked Ladakh, alone, because he had always wanted to see Pangong and she decided she would see it for both of them.
Another had never held a passport. At sixty-eight she got one, used it in Bhutan, and has since filled four pages of it.
A third had raised three children and looked after two sets of parents, and told us on the second evening in Rajasthan that this was the first week of her life that nobody had needed anything from her.
We hear a version of this story on almost every departure. It is the reason the club exists.
