Final, Existential Thoughts: The Fault in Our Stars -- John Green

This:

It was unbearable. The whole thing. Every second worse than the last. I just kept thinking about calling him, wondering what would happen, if anyone would answer. In the last weeks, we'd been reduced to spending our time together in recollection, but that was not nothing: The pleasure of remembering had been taken from me, because there was no longer anyone to remember with. It felt like losing your co-rememberer meant losing the memory itself, as if the things we'd done were less real and important than they'd been hours before. 
-- The Fault in Our Stars (Hazel's reflection after Augustus' death; italics mine)


This passage struck me as incredibly and devastatingly true. (Devastatingly? Possible-made-up word alert.) When we experience the loss of someone, whether to death or the end of a relationship, we lose the power of shared memory. And shared memory is, itself, a validation of individual life, because someone else is remembering us, too. We have a co-rememberer-- one who witnesses our life and reminds us of its significance.

The idea is so powerful. The symbolism of memory and immortality are so rich in this passage.