The story of how Aurora ended up in California with the kids was a complicated story. If she had to summarize it, it would be that she ran and ran until she hit the ocean and could go no further, contemplating whether she should just keep walking out into the sea. No, she decided, she would not walk out into the sea. She had children to raise for fifteen more years. The sea could come for her later.
Of course, there were a few more steps between that moment and now.