It's been almost a thousand years. I knew that she would not be around for long.

[He would come back to Earth after a decade only to see that she had changed. Verity turned into an old woman before his processor could understand what was happening. Eventually, she grew too weak to get into the same trouble as she used to, and then her undying fighting spirit came only in the form of verbal barbs.]

...She used to call me "uncle". It's a title either given to blood relations or a person one regards fondly, is it not?