What Our Friends Left Behind

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.
The history of the AIDS epidemic has largely been told from the perspective of gay men: their losses, struggles and contributions, but what about women - in particular, straight women? Not just Elizabeth Taylor and Princess Diana, but thousands whose accomplishments have never been recognized? For almost forty years, straight women have been affected by HIV/AIDS. They have fought for the right to be included in clinical trials and qualify for disability benefits. They have raised money and awareness. They have devoted their lives to caregiving, medical research and advocacy. But until now, their stories have been ignored or forgotten, even in accounts of women's history. Drawing on personal interviews and archival research, Fag Hags, Divas and Moms: The Legacy of Straight Women in the AIDS Community is the first book to share the stories of women around the world, throughout the epidemic. Some of the names are familiar; most are not. But all have left a lasting impact on the fight against a virus that has killed over 40 million people around the world of them women. Victoria Noe assures their place in women's history, half for their determination to educate and advocate, to end the epidemic once and for all. 

Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.5", 205 pages
Materials: Softcover book

Victoria Noe
(Irving Park)

Victoria Noe is an award-winning author, speaker and activist. Her Friend Grief series recognizes the importance of friendships in shaping our lives, and is currently being updated to include the coronavirus pandemic. Her HIV/AIDS activism led her to write Fag Hags, Divas and Moms: The Legacy of Straight Women in the AIDS Community, the first book to honor the ways women changed the course of the epidemic. An accomplished public speaker, Noe has presented at The Muse and the Marketplace, Book Expo America, Mt. Sinai Hospital, Open Hand, and libraries around the country. She is a member of ACT UP/NY and the Chicago AIDS Garden planning committee.