The most compelling consequence of death is not merely separation but a growing limitation of understanding, the breaking off of a dialogue, a rapport, a love which had thought it was wider and bigger. My friend is dead, but this death tears holes in my own existence.
Adrienne von Speyr, The Mystery of Death (1953)
It has occurred to me that the moments when I find myself most noticeably missing Mum tend be those when I have the impulse to "converse" with her, whether figuratively or literally (either "Mum would have said this about what just happened" or "I would say this to Mum right now"). I think there really is something to the idea that relationships with those we love are like life-long conversations where we share ourselves with each other, and that one metaphor for the loss of a loved one is a conversation interrupted, seemingly before it was finished.