Meeting her symbolized an ending, The ending of loneliness. Meeting her symbolized a beginning, The beginning of happiness.

One meeting draws a boundary between loneliness and happiness. The change is named twice, once as an ending and once as a beginning. Both happen in the same encounter, so relief and arrival occupy a single moment.

For him, the meeting carries this meaning. It makes no guarantee that romance permanently removes loneliness in all its forms. Companionship gives the memory its dividing line. What lay behind it is remembered as isolation; what opens ahead is understood through connection and joy. From that point onward, meeting her becomes the event that separates those two periods in the story of his life.