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Please accept my sympathy and condolences.

My wife and I are both 75 and coping with the other's absence is more frequently a conversational gambit. In COVID sequestration we sit in adjacent butt dents on the couch in front of the TV. I fear having the couch to myself.

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Thank you, John. My husband was 89. We've talked more than once about the prospects of one of us being left behind but it's still a shock when it happens. I think we all hope we can go together when the time comes, but that's a rarity. No amount of preparation prepares you for it, but if you share your lives happily, hug every day, and never get tired of saying 'I love you', you'll be able to mourn with no regrets.

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Hi Ramona, It has been 17 months since Dan died - I can so relate to what you are saying and feeling. He is here every minute of my day - you may smile but we cuddle each night in my mind - and he is not here to do it in person. I can make the decisions, I can live on my own, but someone is missing and my heart knows it.

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Yes to everything you've said, Janice. Our lives have changed in so many ways, but the biggest change for me is in not sharing every decision. Kind of scary knowing I'm on my own in the decision-making, after 65 years of togetherness, but I think I'll be up to it when my brain untangles a bit more and I'm thinking straighter. Until then, I'm making no big decisions!

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That is a huge one . . we, too, shared every decision, but then we couldn't.

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