Wonderful novella of the marraige of two artists and the death of one of them. Heartwarming without being melodramatic. Line drawings of spaces in their home enhance the story.

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A story about a couple whose favorite time was their cocktail hour together at five p.m. From this poin the story moves one coping with grief when one dies. It's a happy tale until this event that turns sad. She revels in the memories about what they shared together, feels guilt about their disagreements and that she wasn't by his side when he left this earth. Yes, it's hard for the the one left behind who must find a way to develop a new life.

Well written, it's a realistic tale about the end of life, how retirement develops, learning to cope with the frailities of later life and finally, living with declining health that ends in death. Realistic, this is little look provides much food for thought.

Robert Louis Stevenson sums it best: The changes wrought by death are in themselves so sharp and final, and so terrible and melancholy in their consequences, that the thing stands alone in man's experience, not a received condition, and has no parallel on earth. ("Aes Triplex)

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A novella really, snippets of memories and bits of life now, without one's spouse and the shared evening rituals. There are lovely line drawings throughout, each depicting the theme of the chapter and that part of the widow's grief. I don't know if this book would help or hurt one who has lost a beloved spouse. But I have gifted other books on the loss of a mate and each time was told how much it helped to hear others who understood perfectly this kind of deep grief.
That said, I have read other Godwin's books and thought them more solid. (It was so difficult finding a way to describe the difference without sounding cold.)

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