@the_Lilli_withawill Oh my gosh thank you, so much !! :D For reading and for the comment, really means a lot! And sure no probs, well, the way I imagined it is that all that happened [in other words, the rest of the story] happened within Tintin's mind in its coma state. And why he saw all these things (coming home and finding no one, the Captain gone...) because he was involuntarily hearing these things from the Captain, who basically used to sit beside him and say how it was hard for him to carry on, Snowy was getting old etc. And the letter towards the end was actually Haddock speaking in real life to Tintin while he was still in coma- and when in the story it says 'He would be the boy reporter once again', that was kind of Tintin's 'final call' to finally gather the strength to open his eyes and wake up from the coma. And then white bright light (hospital lighting) flooded in- and the Captain and Snowy were beside him to welcome him back to reality :) So all in all, it was all a hazy false reality Tintin's mind kept creating as he listened to the Captain speaking to him as the days passed by, and his own fears muddled together....
The alternative way to view the ending was that Tintin couldn't make it through in the end either, and so they both still ended up together, even if not alive- but I thought that was too sad >.<
[Apologies for the long explanation xD )