Today we learned that J., whom we have known for over three decades, has died of her own volition. The MS which had, over the last decade, confined her to a wheelchair and robbed her of most of her ability to move muscularly, finally diminished her experience of life to the point that it did not seem worth going on. She refused water and drink and any external aids to life... and she died.

We never knew J. well. She was a nodding acquaintance, albeit one who crossed paths with us on a regular basis, leading to a lot of nodding over the years. We don't have any profound observations to make about her character, about the course of her life, We knew that her marriage to S. had been difficult, that S. had behaved increasingly erratically over the years, and we'd heard rumors that he had moved out and further rumors that he had been institutionaized with dementia. All of this must have made J.'s life even harder than it would otherwise have been.

We can't say, given how slightly we knew J., that we will miss her (in any meanigful sense of that word). We can say that, as far as we could tell, she was a nice enough person. There will probably be moments in the years to come, walking through the entrance area of our building or through the park at the end of the street, that we will remember that she was once among us and note that she is no longer.