After a lifetime of nods, frowns and stoic smiles, they were both fluent in emotional shorthand.

All good things come to an end. All bad things go on forever.

I try not to live in the past...but...sometimes the past lives in me

He'd do what he always did, find the sweet among the bitter.

There are people in our lives whom we love, and lose, and unfailingly long for. They orbit our hearts like Halley’s Comet, crossing into our universe only once, or if we are lucky, twice in a lifetime.

It reminded him that time was short, but that beautiful endings could still be found at the end of cold, dreary days.

A young nurse, someone new whom he didn't recognise, came up to Henry and patted him on the arm. "Are you a friend or a family member?" She whispered the question in his ear, trying not to disturb Sheldon. The question hung there like a beautiful chord, ringing in the air. Henry was Chinese, Sheldon obviously wasn't. They looked nothing alike. Nothing at all. "I'm distant family," Henry said.