The Quiet American

by Graham Greene

I just don’t want to be alone in my last decade, that’s all. I wouldn’t know what to think about all day long. I’d sooner have a woman in the same room—even one I didn’t love. But if Phuong left me, would I have the energy to find another? …’ ‘If that’s all she means to you …’ ‘All, Pyle? Wait until you’re afraid of living ten years alone with no companion and a nursing home at the end of it.

As a widower at 55 who doesn’t foresee myself in another relationship I know his feeling, spending my last decade(s) with no companion. I don’t mind being single but in many situations two is better than one. And I think about the nursing home thing. There will not be one.