She is leaving him, not all at once, which would be....

“ She is leaving him, not all at once, which would be painful enough, but in a wrenching succession of separations. One moment she is here, and then she is gone again, and each journey takes her a little farther from his reach. He cannot follow her, and he wonders where she goes when she leaves. ”

Debra Dean

From : The Madonnas of Leningrad