When they checked through their list to account for everyone, it turned out that they hadn't lost as many people as they thought, but the ones that they did lose were of a high price. They were people who were integral to the family and could not easily be replaced. The family head was due to step down in a few years. No one from her father's generation had been interested in being the head of the family, so rather than foisting it on someone who had no interest, he had decided to hold out for the next generation.