This was originally published in 2012 (as an audio story) and 2013 (as a short story), six years before The Calculating Stars. I think that if I had read it before reading the novels, I would think it a rather banal story of an astronaut reminiscing.

However, because I read it after two novels about Elma York, it hits me in the feels as a coda to a long relationship between Elma and her husband Nathaniel. The series devotes significant words to their domestic relationship, not just to the details of going into space. It's one of the most well written science fictional relationships I've ever read. So reading about their lives nearing their ends means something, even though the story of a relationship at the end is banal in the details.