HEA or DOA?

All---

Okay, so, I know several of you have read "Terminal Instar," my story in Notes from Underground.  There's something I'm dying to know.  Does it have a happy ending?

Charlie Chaplin, happily ever after

I'm seriously, very curious about that.

For everyone else -- get the anthology, read all the stories, go friend and follow all the other authors, and then come back and tell me if you think "Terminal Instar" has a happy ending or not.

In the mean time, I'd like to start an open conversation about what you all think (as writers or as readers) makes an ending happy?

This is on my mind all the time, but more than ever as I worked up, "Kansai Oniisan," the story I'll be submitting to Stories for Sendai.  In my first draft, I thought it was a really clear, unequivocally happy ending. For this piece, that's definitely what I wanted.

But then I actually had my wife read the story, and she was willing to go as far as, "Well, I definitely know that's a happy ending for you."

I have my own thoughts, but I don't want to spoil the conversation, so please, readers and writers alike, chime in: what makes an ending happy?

.Nevets.