The town goes on as though
It thought you still were in it;
The gilded cage seems scarce to know
That it has lost its linnet;
The people come, the people pass;
The clock keeps on a-ticking:
And through the basement plots of grass
Persistent weeds are pricking.

Poem by Henry Cuyler Bunner, Just a Love-Letter

Sometimes, when one person is missing, the whole world seems depopulated.
Quotation from Alphonse de Lamartine