By Anna Sanderson
He was so quiet, we didn’t realize he was missing at first. Then Andrew shouted: “Who ordered pepperoni?” And we turned to find a vacant spot on the settee.
It’s funny how people adapt. These days we step over his dirty trainers, ignore the empty seat at the dining table. The missing posters and social media pleas are long forgotten. Life has moved on, taking us with it.
He is but a memory now, faded over time like a photograph. I remember the love we shared as though it belonged to someone else.
Sometimes I wonder if he was ever there.
Why are “his” trainers (dirty shoes?) still there in the way…but the posters are gone? It is very evocative but a bit confusing for me.
I think “missing posters” refers to posters made depicting people who are missing, placed on telephone poles and bulletin boards and bus shelters, like “wanted posters” show people who are “wanted” for crimes. Those posters and the social media pleas were attempts to find the missing person, but are long forgotten now at the time of this story…
A good example of how the passage of time seems to lessen our grief and sorrow over loss.