Before John is a very handsome edition of The Londoner . It contains the usual notices and event dates . The page that caught and held his eye is one which calls attention to a small restaurant called Angelo's. It is an Italian joint which is famous for its Siciliana and Eclairs. On the page is a photograph taken in London itself. It shows, from left to right , John , a very drunk Sherlock and Angelo . He remembers the occasion well: He had forced Sherlock to lunch that day and Sherlock had received a call from Mycroft who had informed them of his imminent visit to our flat at 221 B , Baker Street ( Perhaps, that explained the fairly evident dyspeptic expression on Sherlock's features).
The accompanying prose, apparently stated by Angelo himself is the following sentence:
John Watson,army surgeon and the great Mr Sherlock Holmes were regulars at my place. Mr Holmes had defended me in a murder trial just two days before the day the photo was taken. It was his birthday that day.
To John, there it is, in plain unadorned text, Sherlock's obituary. It reminded him painfully that the man next to him no longer exists.
John's therapist says that he need to write about it. Says it helps . But there he was in front of a blank screen in his attempts to conjure in writing , a person who is extinct. He'd rather write about a living madman than a dead one.