My passport was lost or stolen in Portugal within a few days of my return flight. I got a temporary passport and made my flight—but only after spending my eightieth birthday in a US Embassy waiting room and a couple of fretful days and nights trying to figure out what to do.
This experience underscored for me the plight too many Americans confront in trying to navigate the far more complicated legal and regulatory problems of housing, debt collection and denials of benefits that have consequences far beyond missing a flight home.
