When
someone you love dies, and you're not expecting it, you
don't lose them all at once; you lose them in pieces over a
long time - the way the mail stops coming, and their scent fades
from the pillows and even from the clothes in their closet and
drawers. Gradually, you accumulate the parts of them that are
gone. Just when the day comes - when there's a particular
missing part that overwhelms you with the feeling that
they're gone, forever - there comes another day, and another
specifically missing part.