Ilse

Five years later, the memory of that period still returned with force. The pandemic had changed daily life for everyone, but within that larger silence it also held a personal loss — one that remained tied to remembrance, absence and the rituals of memorial.

This tear came from that anniversary. It marked the way grief can stay connected to a time as well as to a person: not only remembering who was lost, but also the strange and fragile world in which that loss was lived.