Source: https://xkcd.com/3172/
More context: https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/3172:_Fifteen_Years
I’ve copied some of it below, but I didn’t go in and add all the links:
Randall’s then-fiancée (now wife) was diagnosed with cancer in late 2010. This is a matter he has discussed in the comic multiple times before, with Randall being depicted as Cueball and his wife as Megan. At this comic’s release, it had been 15 years since her diagnosis and treatments.
This comic continues previous comics in the series – 1141: Two Years, 1928: Seven Years, and 2386: Ten Years – the initial parts of which are shown in the first 20 panels, which are grayed-out. These take us through the initial diagnosis and inability to imagine what future might be, into concerns about it potentially recurring, and up to enjoying ten years of life together that they weren’t sure they would have.
After some new panels marking more significant non-cancer-related events from the most recent five years of their life, Megan announces some potentially concerning-sounding symptoms she’s experiencing. However, the punchline is that these are just the signs of growing old, which Cueball is experiencing too. This is good news, considering the serious medical scares they lived through.
The title text continues that ending with a play on a common conversation topic. Normally someone rhetorically asks “Want to feel old?” and then follows it with a description of a difference the conversants have with the younger generation, or how long it’s been since some significant event they both experienced, as Randall has done in several previous comics. This is meant to make the other person feel bad about their age. In this case, though, the question is taken literally, with a simple “Yes” response to indicate that feeling old is better than being dead and they are happy to be alive and to have had the time they have.
The finality of this new installment suggests that it may be the last in the series, as it is solely related to Randall’s wife’s recovery from cancer.
Honestly, it’s really not my place to encourage you to do or not do anything (or her).
I’m just saying this kind of connection is special and something to be cherished, to hold on to it, to nurture it, to enjoy its bliss.
Whichever way works for you both is fine, really.
You can choose to try and make what you want out of this connection. By all means, spend time with her, let it develop into what it may.
In our case, both of us already being happy in our own long-term non-poly couples, that’s quite a bit different.
And so we focus on maintaining the privilege to be part of each other’s lives first and foremost without blowing each other’s lives up.
I imagine some/most go on their whole lives without ever meeting this person for them and I feel blessed.