The loneliest moment in someone's life is
when they are watching their whole world
fall apart, and all they can do is to stare
blankly. It's not the shattering itself that
breaks you. It's the silence that follows,
the quiet space where you realize that's
nothing left to salvage.
And in that moment, you know that
you'll never be the same again.
You'll build something new, perhaps,
but it will never be what you lost.
— F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby