What a lovely story. You've painted things so vividly that I can almost feel the fire and taste the champagne.

You especially held my attention, though, because my own partner passed away from a heart condition 23 years ago. The grief was terrible at first, of course. But I eventually loved again, and my new partner and I made plenty of memories together, including Christmas memories that I've written about.

When I first started writing personal essays on Medium, I wrote a lot about my late partner Lenny. I shared stories as best I could that sort of brought him back to life temporarily, or at least that's what it felt like.

I wouldn't have been able to do that in the first few years after he died. The process would likely have been too painful. But I guess there comes a point, a healthy point, where good memories no longer feel too contaminated by pain to spend time with.

Lenny adored herring, btw, though we never got to Sweden. We did enjoy a day in Copenhagen once, though my memories of it are vague. We were just stopping over, like you.

If we had been sitting on a bench with a bottle of champagne, he would have shared it. That's very much who he was.

Thanks for sharing that beautiful memory with us.