In the days that follow, it's movement, not stillness, that helps to keep the grief at bay.

From one tyrant to another. That is the world we know, now

Sometimes I see him as just another person, and sometimes I feel the sight of him in my gut, like a deep ache.

I wonder how I seem to them. They must see someone I don't see. Someone capable and strong. Someone I can't be; someone I can be.

His absence will haunt their hallways, and he will be a space they can't fill. And then time will pass, and the hole will be gone, like when an organ is removed and the body's fluids flow into the space it leaves. Humans can't tolerate emptiness for long.

Don’t tell me you’re going to eat a mashed-potato sandwich

My dear girl. I am his family. I am permanent. You are only temporary.