Heart-Wrenching & Beautiful

A Mother’s Second Chance by Sarah Lefebve is the most beautiful and heart-wrenching contemporary novel about love and loss; grief and guilt; faith and families. It is a novel that I savoured and was emotionally invested in. It was a book that I never wanted to end.

This is a book about loss and how it affects all those involved. A best friend, Lou, and her husband are tragically killed, leaving their two children to be looked after by Zoe, Lou’s best friend. Friends for over thirty years since meeting at secondary school, the grief is very raw, “I am angry at my friend… that she died.” Grief throws up many emotions. It is a question of wading through the grief journey. “One day you’ll wake up and though the pain will still be there, it will be a little duller. A little easier to bear.”

Loss never goes away. “It’s okay to cry… You don’t get a quota of tears.” Tears can come when we do, and when we don’t, expect them.

Guilt is the bedfellow of grief. “It’s okay to laugh… It doesn’t mean you don’t miss them.” We are allowed to smile and laugh again. “The start of spring. A beautiful but painful reminder that life does not stop. Even when your best friend dies.” We feel that life should stop turning when loved ones die, but the wheels just keep spinning.

The children left behind are five-year-old Phoebe and her baby brother Zack who is not one yet. Phoebe’s grief is hard to deal with as her pain cannot be taken away. “She [Phoebe] asks if it is possible to un-die once you have died.”

Love never dies. “They [Phoebe & Zack] will forever be the love that links me to the best friend I ever had.” Loving her children is the last act of love that Zoe can do for Lou. “We will make sure Phoebe and Zack remember Louise and Rich. They don’t need a house to do that. And we will help them make new memories.”