Allie

“And they had nailed the boards above her face, The peasants of that land, Wondering to lay her in that solitude, And raised above her mound A cross they had made out of two bits of wood, And planted cypress round; And left her to the indifferent stars above. —W. B. YEATS,
“A Dream of Death”
― Daniel James Brown, The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party

“You’re overdressed for the occasion,” Olivia said, but it came out softer than she intended, not at all sharp. Perhaps she could be a gentler person, she thought. Her shell was so hard in those days. “Can you take off your shirt?”
― Emily St. John Mandel, The Glass Hotel

“My mate died today," said Constant. "Sorry," said Salo. "I would say, ’Is there anything I can do?’—but Skip once told me that that was the most hateful and stupid expression in the English language.”
― Kurt Vonnegut Jr., The Sirens of Titan

“Later, standing in the shower with his head bent and water running through his hair, he cried some more. He was like Helen in at least one way; he wanted all this to be a dream. He would have given anything, maybe his very soul, if he could wake up to sunlight lying across his bed like a second coverlet and smell frying bacon downstairs. The tears finally dried up, and he began to feel something other than sorrow and loss—something harder. A kind of bedrock, previously unknown to him. It was a relief to know it was there.”
― Stephen King, The Institute