Did you ever read Love's Executioner?

"'Once I understood that I must wrestle with the real enemy--time, aging, death--then I came to realize that Mathilde is neither adversary or rescuer, but simply a fellow traveler trudging through the cycle of life.' Breuer says.  To see your partner in this deceptively simple way.  Yalom believes, is to open the door to meaning and happiness in a world without guarantees of either."

Irving Yalom, Love's Executioner