When Martha Jefferson lay dying at the age of 34, after ten years of marriage and giving birth to six children, the desolate Thomas Jefferson never left her side. They copied out their favorite passage in the novel “Tristram Shandy.” First in her hand. Then in his.

<In her hand> Time wastes too fast: every letter I trace tells me with what rapidity life follows my pen, the days and hours of it are flying over our heads like clouds of windy day, never to return – more every thing presses on –

<in Jefferson’s> and every time I kiss thy hand to bid adieu, every absence which follows it, are preludes to that eternal separation which we are shortly to make!

[https://archive.nytimes.com/kalman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/time-wastes-too-fast]