In itself, loving is tragic.  But most of us are not raised to live loveless and alone.  This film, as does the book out of which it came about, takes us through the agony of when love has passed . . . as loved ones pass away, and we are left alone to pay the long price of our short experience of love.  In our daily lives, the rule seems to be: Thou shalt not appreciate whilst thou hast!  It is in the not having-- or, more precisely, in the no longer having-- that we gain a fuller measure of realization of what we had.