Although it makes it no less painful, somewhere in the back of your mind, you’re prepared for the eventual death of your grandparents and parents. It’s the order of life. But you’re not prepared for friends to die.

When I was a teenager, I would often go to my grandmother’s house after school. One day I turned up to find her crying. She’d just discovered that a close friend had passed away, and that now she was the only one left in a group that had been affectionately known as the ‘old girls’ (despite having met in their twenties!). My 14-year-old self-centred mind had never even considered the prospect of friends dying, let alone grappling with the grief my Nanma was experiencing after losing friends that she’d had for over fifty years. That moment left a big impression on me and Lauren Fox’s Days of Awe reminded me of it.

Isabel Moore’s life is tipped upside down when her best friend, Josie, is killed behind the wheel in a single-car accident.

“Her rusty 11-year-old Toyota skidded off the slick road like a can of soup rolling across a supermarket aisle.” Continue reading →