Losing your first language bit by bit is a real loss. Getting it back bit by bit is a real comeback.

A language slipping away is not a small thing. It takes jokes with it, and phone calls with older relatives, and the version of you that existed in those words, and it goes so gradually that there is no moment to mourn. That slide can also run the other way, at the same unglamorous pace.

If this is yours, pick one small regular contact with the language: a weekly call, a show, half an hour with someone who still has it. Expect to feel clumsy for a while. Words tend to come back faster than they left.