Grieving a friend is hard. 
Grieving a friend during a pandemic is a lot harder.

What Our Friends Left Behind: Grief and Laughter in a Pandemic is a powerful and compassionate exploration of friend grief during the COVID-19 epidemic. This book sensitively addresses the unique challenges and emotions faced by people who have experienced the loss of a friend during these uncertain times.

Through personal anecdotes, interviews, and expert insights, Victoria Noe delves into the profound impact of losing a friend and the specific grief journey that ensues. The book acknowledges the unique bond and significance of friendships and explores the complexities of grieving for a friend in a world upended by isolation, physical distancing, and limited opportunities for traditional mourning rituals. 

Noe’s book also highlights the power of honoring the lives of those friends, offering examples of meaningful tributes and finding solace in shared memories. It encourages readers to embrace the healing power of community, finding comfort in the stories of others who have experienced friend grief during the pandemic.

What Our Friends Left Behind serves as a source of comfort, validation, and hope, reminding readers that they were not alone in the intricate journey of friend grief during these challenging times.




Praise for What Our Friends Left Behind:

"When you're dealing with big emotions like fear and loss, there are so many layers of realities facing the reader. The author wisely blends descriptions of how we lived and how we changed. Using some cases we heard about and many we didn't, the author smartly puts us right in the middle of us, envisioning those who seemed to be healing but died quickly. The pace, then, rises and falls and with it our memories in bursts of remembrance. Author takes the structure seriously and takes what could be a litany of similar experiences that people had and turns it around into comfort and connection for us, with ideas we can still use today. Nice job." - Judge, 32nd Annual Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards

 "Victoria Noe sheds light on the striking similarities between the COVID-19 pandemic and the HIV/AIDS epidemic in its early years, with the respective governments of both times choosing to ignore the advice of experts and medical professionals, putting vulnerable sections of the populace at even more risk. This book provides a moving encapsulation of the pandemic's effect on people, showcasing ways to mourn the friends that many of us lost along the way. Noe shares her own experiences with grief, anxiety, and stress during this period, losing childhood friends and struggling to mourn properly due to extraordinary circumstances, and discovering new ways to honor those who passed away. What Our Friends Left Behind is a deeply personal yet universal account of loss and grief that explores commemorating departed friends in this modern era of social media and an increasingly divided society. Highly recommended."  ***** Reader's Favorite

"Firstly, I did find comfort in this author's story. She's a smart woman, sensitive, with the writing skills to put over her thoughts and feelings on, what is to many, a very sensitive subject. I like the message of ‘honouring’ the people we lost, and the importance of sharing what we feel with others - and how this is a way of healing. 

In terms of who is this book for, that's difficult to answer. I know many people still don't want to think about the COVID years, and, subsequently, they might be reluctant to open a book of this nature. All I can say is I personally found this book insightful and helpful - yes, helpful. Helpful insofar as the author reminded me that no matter how alone I often felt back then, I wasn't - not truly. And how important it is to honour the fallen."  ***** Wishing Shelf Book Awards
 

"What Our Friends Left Behind: Grief and Laughter in a Pandemic is heartfelt, earnest, often humorous, and at the very least deserves to be read for the light it shines on a very dark time. - Jason Munoz, Reedsy Discovery

"What Our Friends Left Behind is an open-hearted reflection of significant friend losses during an unprecedented health emergency. Victoria Noe effectively inserts the voices of those impacted and captures the anguish of each unique loss. I predict that this book will receive accolades for expertly laying out the chronology, the statistics, and the very personal episodes from this historic time." - Lynne Staley, author, In Death Is the Secret to Life: A Tribute Journal