Thank you for your thoughts, dear Chip! They correspond with my experience. What you can’t know yet: it’s getting even better with every day that passes. Believe an 81-year-old! 🙂

Thank you, Ursula. With the phrase ‘pay it forward!’ the English language has an advantage. Yes, with young people we could well use ‘Pay it forward!’ For non-speakers of English we might say ‘Tu dafür auch du was Gutes!’

Thank you, Rick, for a very inspiring story. “Pay it forward!” In English you have this useful phrase – in German we lack an equivalent. I am going to think about one which could be spread…

Thank you, Elaine. I experienced the same 27 years ago. An image came to me then. While at first I felt as if my heart had been ripped out of me, I later had the vision that my husband had left half of his within me, and together with my own half I still had a beating heart that was unbroken.