Loss is an inevitable part of the journey of love. Douglas Gresham in the introduction to his step-father C. S. Lewis's A Grief Observed says “I had yet to learn that all human relationships end in pain—it is the price that our imperfection has allowed Satan to exact from us for the privilege of love … For the greater the love the greater the grief, and the stronger the faith the more savagely will Satan storm its fortress.”

It is unsettling thought to think that love—much of what people consider the good in the world—is a debt that has to be repaid in the balance of life. But even if it is, even if there must be some sort of balance, this good—this love—is what gives life meaning. In the end, even if it is lost, it is what makes life matter.

Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.
 – Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "In Memoriam A.A.H."