h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I am coming to the end of my second draft of my so-called novel and I've got a problem.
As the current draft stands, my heroine Danielle and her son Jeannot return to the garage where they were living before they had to flee and find it deserted. The owner breaks the news that my hero, Michel has been killed.
This is such a sad ending, I think I need a framing narrative. I need the whole story to start with Danielle as an old woman, receiving a letter from her brother-in-law Henri, expressing a desire for reconciliation with his brother's family. Then the book ends with Danielle and her son (now a middle-aged man) going to France, meeting Henri and putting aside old grievances.
I could let Michel live and give the story a happy ending, with him and Danielle meeting again. But this is not such an interesting narrative.
Or I could provide that, at some point on her travels, Danielle meets another man she likes. I wouldn't want this to be more than a friendship. But at the end, he turns up and she has a chance of a brighter future.

If Danielle is an older woman at the end, then Michel would be older, too. There may still be things they can do with their lives, but some options (such as procreating) might be no longer available.

But, yeah, writers are often advised to do bad things to good characters. Killing them off usually works out as a bad thing. But be forewarned: if you do kill Michel off, and your novel becomes wildly popular on publication, some studio is likely to buy movie rights and change the ending to a happy one when the movie comes out.

Movie rights!

of course, a movie like "Sanctum" would have a 90% mortality rate as the plot progresses. You don't have to punish your good characters to that extent.....

I don't intend to kill everybody off!

But doesn't writing give you power - you can kill off anybody you like, without getting into trouble!

Are you kidding? Arthur Conan Doyle killed off Sherlock Holmes, and his fans made him bring Holmes back to life.