You do not finish grieving; you become more capable of carrying what remains.

The idea that grief ends sets an impossible standard, and then people fail it privately and think something is wrong with them. What actually changes is capacity. The loss does not shrink, but life grows around it, and you get steadier at carrying something that once made walking impossible. That is a real change, and it deserves to be recognized as progress even though nothing was completed.

Instead of asking whether you are over it, notice what you can do now that you could not do six months ago. Answer the phone, look at the photographs, say the name. Those are the markers that mean anything.