An empty seat at breakfast can change the sound of an entire morning.

One missing chair changes the acoustics of a whole morning. The routine is the same, the food is the same, and everything sounds different because the shape people were arranged around has a gap in it. Absence is felt structurally, not just emotionally, which is why it registers even in the quietest ways.

If you are in a house that has lost someone, whether to death or departure or a normal leaving, expect the ordinary hours to be the hard ones rather than the significant occasions. There is no fixing that quickly. Small changes to the arrangement can help a little, and so can naming out loud what everyone in the room already hears.