Every year, millions of people experience the death of a friend. Many of us, like myself, lose life partners. Their deaths destroy us, alter our entire lives, and confuse a society that demands us to dry our tears, snap out of it, and move on because they weren’t our child, parent, or spouse. Others lose acquaintances, colleagues, or friends whom we were close to at another time in our lives. The news of their loss may come to us days, weeks, months, or even years after the passing, leaving us feeling guilt alongside our grief. Increasingly, young people are losing friends to gun violence, school massacres, and suicide; they are losing the few peers they feel they could be their whole selves around, the few peers who they believe understand them.
