I have been recording and watching the star trek series of voyager on syfy, You know that one with Janeway, Neelix, Paris and Chakotey. Some of the writing is first class. There is an episode where a version of the holographic doctor somehow ends up in the possession of aliens.

He is activated and finds himself in an alien museum 700 years after he left voyager. The story isnt really important, but he spends 30 years serving the aliens as a holographic doctor. During this time he wonders if Voyager ever made it home, knowing the crew are now dead.

He decides to leave the aliens and set out for the alpha quadrant in a shuttle, and no doubt relives the drama of that
previous existence till the end.
I have been racking my brains for what could be an everyday equivalent, and i think i have it. When i visit my mothers grave i stand there and talk to her in the way i think we all would, and then i leave. If it was the doctor, setting out in a shuttle is visiting the grave of voyager, and not going home, which is incredibly romantic. The writer is indeed gifted, and knows what love is all about.
There is another Picard episode called the skin of evil, a stunning observation on psychopathy, and the true psychology of bereavement.
Both series are underrated compared to the emptyness of game of thrones that reflects nothing of the true experience of being human.