"When my husband died, because he was so famous for not being a believer, many people would come up to me - it still happens to me sometimes - and ask me if Carl had changed at the end and converted to a belief in an afterlife. I am also frequently asked if I believe I will see him again.

Carl faced his death with indefatigable courage and never sought refuge in illusions. The tragedy was that we both knew we would never see each other again. I never expected to be reunited with Carl. But, the great thing is that when we were together, for almost twenty years, we lived with a vivid appreciation of how short and how precious life is.

We never trivialized the meaning of death by pretending it was anything other than a final goodbye. Every moment we were alive and together was miraculous, but not in the sense of being inexplicable or supernatural.

We knew that we had been beneficiaries of chance. That pure chance had been so generous and so kind. That we were able to meet, as Carl wrote so beautifully in Cosmos, you know, in the vastness of space and the immensity of time. That we were able to be together for twenty years. That's something that sustains me and that's much more meaningful.

The way he treated me and the way I treated him, the way we took care of each other and took care of our family, as long as he lived. That is far more important than the idea that I will ever see him again.

I don't think I'll ever see Carl again. But I saw him. We saw each other. We found each other in the cosmos, and that was wonderful."

- Ann Druyan