Matt had found himself gravitating toward the cemetery several times this last week, afraid and yet curious to see the graves of so many he had known, and his own. It had been hard to face that idea, and to face the possibility of his own mortality, and yet, he had felt compelled to seek out the mark of his own passing.
It was there that he was this morning, utterly unaware of Marian's presence until her words shocked him out of his shocked stare at his own tombstone. He swallowed, and looked down at it again, one more time, crossing himself, before he moved out of the large shadow it created, and moved quietly and respectfully toward where Marian was.
She was a friend, and a mentor, and she had been his teacher again, recently, as she had been in the past, and he cared about this strong woman. It hurt, as he came up, and halted a respectful distance away, to see her so unhappy.
He signed himself the cross again, and looked down to make his own prayers for the man he knew she mourned, and his prayers for her, as well.