For my 85th birthday, a young man gave me an envelope from my deceased husband.

The reassuring power of rituals

Returning to the same restaurant every year, sitting at the same table, ordering almost the same thing… These habits have something profoundly soothing about them. They give the illusion that time can slow down, even turn back. Even when life has imposed its separations, these rituals become silent promises: promises to continue, despite everything, with undiminished affection.