You notice the ones who are no longer with you when you sit down at a family gathering and notice the empty chairs.
You notice the lack of a particular pitch or voice in the all-too-noisy room. It’s like my ability to pick my cousin Kelsey’s voice out a choir of eight. This is the reverse. It is the lack of voices you are so used to hearing in a given environment that have surrounded you for 30+ years… those voices are missing.
Like the oiling of a squeaky hinge that you realize after the fact you had gotten used to it. Eventually, its silence will become the norm.
Sometimes, it’s the loud noises that get your attention, and at other times, it is the lack of any noise at all.
