And I had … eternity before me, an endless march of nights bearing this unbearable loss. Nearly half a century had passed, and I’d grown accustomed to the pain of mourning. Then to have her return … to have those bleak years wiped from my soul as though they’d never been, to have a glimpse of the paradise that lay before us, and then— —to lose her again … It was too much. Despairing, I wallowed in the mud and gave in to the grief, unable to stop.
