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As Jude’s only doctor, Andy devotes a significant portion of not only his career but his personal life to caring for Jude. He sees Jude weekly to clean old wounds or address new ones, keeps a meticulous account of Jude’s self-harming incidents, and consistently encourages Jude to seek mental health care. Andy, who is surly and arrogant on the outside but possesses a great capacity for care when it comes to loved ones, occasionally takes on a “bad cop” role in his relationship with Jude. He yells at and scolds both Jude and Jude’s friends, driving home the severity of Jude’s condition. However, like Willem, Harold, and the rest of Jude’s social circle, Andy is ultimately unable to heal Jude of his self-harming tendencies. This inadequacy frustrates Andy, but he, along with Jude’s other loved ones, does his best to come to terms with Jude’s right to control his own mental and physical health.
Andy and Jude’s life stories are intimately woven together. For Jude, Andy is his literal lifesaver, the one doctor he can trust to care for his fragile body, and one of the few figures in Jude’s life who is obligated to care for him and keep his confidences regardless of what Jude does to himself. For Andy, Jude is his most loyal and important patient, a man who completely relies on him both physically and emotionally, and who challenges Andy’s personal and professional limits. There is a codependency in Andy and Jude’s relationship, in which both men are entirely committed to their respective roles of caretaker and patient. Andy and Jude grow old together, forging a unique friendship that lasts over 30 years. When Jude dies, Andy is not far behind him. While Andy’s death is not directly related to Jude’s, the fact that he dies so quickly after Jude—and so quickly after his retirement—points to how difficult it can be to create a new purpose and identity after being attached to the role of caretaker for so long. Just as Jude struggles to go on living after his partner and caretaker Willem dies, so too does Andy lose a sense of purpose once he no longer has Jude to care for.
