Absence can occupy more space than presence ever seemed to.

Someone’s presence occupies a normal amount of room in a day. Their absence can occupy all of it. The empty chair, the unmade phone call, the silence where a particular laugh used to be, these take up more attention than the person ever did, because the mind keeps checking a space it expects to be filled. That is not a distortion; it is what noticing looks like when the thing noticed is gone.

Expect the absence to be loud for a while and do not measure your progress by how quiet it is. If certain places or hours are especially heavy, plan for them rather than being surprised. Company at the loud hours helps more than distraction does.