Matthew Gallaway

“I'm sorry," Leo murmured and then seemed to look through Martin for a few seconds before he returned his gaze to him. "Although if it's any comfort - and please don't take this the wrong way, because I speak from my own perspective, which I understand often places me far outside of the norm - I sometimes like to think that death, at least in the case of those we truly love, allows us to appreciate what they have done for us in ways that are not possible when we're all here, constantly changing and fixated on how to get from one day to the next. Death offers us the chance to reflect on who they were, which of course is a way to understand ourselves. As painful as it can be to see them go - and I don't mean to diminish the sense of loss or grief we all feel - there is also no greater gift.”

“As much as we like to think we grieve for others, she said, it bears keeping in mind that we are also grieving for ourselves and, above all, what has inevitably passed us by.”

“No matter how hard life gets, we only get one chance, which is why we owe it to ourselves to make the best of it, for as long as we have.”