His name was Rob.

His name was Rob. He was 28 years old. He passed away Friday in the arms of his soulmate, Jonathan's cousin, Jill.

He was Jill's best friend. They had been friends or more since childhood. Theirs was like a relationship in a movie on the Hallmark channel. Almost too close to be believed. They had just gotten back together for good last year, after a few years of trying life out as Just Friends and deciding they definitely wanted/needed to be together. And then the cancer came back. It just doesn't make any sense to me. These were two people who were simply meant to be together.

They were together in the end. Jill took care of him. Now she is so sad, and so utterly alone. I hate feeling so helpless, wishing there was anything, anything I could do for her and her parents.

It's tempting to feel frustrated because they wasted any of their precious time being apart. But even that separation was meant to be, I guess. Jill has a little girl, Gracie, who was Rob's god-daughter and real daughter in every sense but the biological one. And you have to wonder, if Jill and Rob had stayed together all along, she might not have little Gracie, who is Jill's biggest motivation now to drag herself out of bed in the morning.

His funeral was the saddest one I have ever attended. Jonathan and I were saying it is the first time in our lives that someone our age lost their partner. We have both lost grandparents and relatives, but this was someone so young, and so very, very loved. My heart just aches for Jill. To be so young and to lose this one person you just assumed would always be there. I try to wrap my mind around it, the idea of losing your other half, and I feel cold and clammy and a little nauseous.

All I can do is love my husband like crazy and pray very hard and very, very often for Jill and her family and Rob's family, and little Gracie.