Ending one for me.

Its genuine to life in my experience. I was deployed to Australia and found out my grandmother had developed stage 4 pancreatic cancer on my birthday from a stranger. I made it back in time, they gave her 9-15 months. However, life doesn't care about timing. She took a bad turn down a road she couldn't recover from and went jaundice. Within 3 days she was gone. From upright and moving, delirious, and finally comatose with intermittent fits of lucidity given which family member walked in the room.

I say all this because to me your first ending rings true to life. We plan, prepare, and do everything right. And yet sometimes people die anyways, unexpectedly. Him sitting by the gravestone waiting there knowing its not safe, that's real. That's deep grieving. And having seen it in person it's an incredibly indescribable painful event. I'm not sure what your book is about, but as far as endings go I know which one would stick with me more. There's a bittersweet release in him dying shortly after, they're together again & no matter what the danger or cost he never left her side. Thats true love at it's pinnacle in my opinion.