Seneca: Hold in your bosom Novatilla, who soon will…

Grief can make us forget that someone else may need us even more than we need our own solitude. Seneca points his mother toward a young woman who has lost a protector and now feels unmoored. That is not a command to replace one person with another. No one is replaceable. It is a reminder that love still has work to do. After a death, a breakup, or a family crisis, there are often people nearby whose lives have also been shaken: children, partners, aging parents, friends who do not know what to say. Showing up for them can steady us too. Make the call. Cook the meal. Listen without rushing to fix anything. Your pain is real, but it does not cancel your capacity to be useful. Sometimes the most faithful way to honor the person we miss is to extend the care they gave us to someone still here.