Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for June 30, 2016

Always good to remember that the people who mean so much to us can be taken away at any time. We get so used to “the way things are” that it’s a shock when someone vanishes from among us. This is going to be tough on his partner, who will remember that her last conversation with him was her refusal (for very good reasons) to accompany him. But we shouldn’t let the possibility of suddenly losing someone interfere with our lives. One conversation, even if it was the last, is not any measure of the quality of the relationship. And we can’t always be doing what our partner would like us to do.